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i^anuals  of  JTaitlj  anO  ©utp* 

EDITED    BY    REV.    J.    S.    CANTWELL,    D.D. 


A  SERIES  of  short  books  in  exposition  of  prominent  teachings 
of  the  Universalist  Church,  and  the  moral  and  religious 
obligations  of  believers.  They  are  prepared  by  writers  selected  for 
their  ability  to  present  in  brief  compass  an  instructive  and  helpful 
Manual  on  the  subject  undertaken.  The  volumes  will  be  affirmative 
and  constructive  in  statement,  avoiding  controversy,  while  specifically 
unfolding  doctrines. 

The  Manuals  of  Faith  and  Duty  are  issued  at  intervals  of 
three  or  four  months  ;  uniform  in  size,  style,  and  price. 

No.  I.    THE  FATHERHOOD  OF  GOD. 

By  Rev.  J.  Coleman  Adams,  D.D.,  Chicago. 

No.  II.    JESUS  THE  CHRIST. 

By  Rev.  S.  Crane,  D.D.,  Norwalk,  O. 

No.  III.    REVELATION. 

By   Rev.    I.    M.   Atwood,    D.D.,   President  of    the   Theological 
School,  Canton,   N.  Y. 

No.  IV.    CHRIST  IN  THE  LIFE. 

By  Rev.  Warren  S.  Woodbridge,  Medford,  Mass. 

No.  V.     SALVATION. 

By    Rev.    Orello    Cone,    D.D.,    President   of    Buchtel    College, 
Akron,  O. 

Number  VI.  of  the  Series  will  be :  "  The  Birth  from  Above," 
by  Rev.  Charles  Pollen  Lee.  Other  volumes  and  writers  will  be 
announced  hereafter. 


published   by   the 

UNIVERSALIST   PUBLISHING  HOUSE, 

BOSTON,    MASS. 
Western  Branch:  69  Dearborn  Street,  Chicago. 


Jfianuals  of  jFaitjj  ani  Qutg. 

No.  II.  /<y 

OCT  13  U 


t^^. 


Losmi  sy 


JESUS   THE   CHRIST. 


BY 


REV.   STEPHEN   CRANE,  D.D. 


■  Thou  art  the  Chbist,  the  Sok  of  the  LirrNO  Got>." 

Matthew  xvi.  16. 


SECOND   EDITION. 


BOSTON: 

TTOTYERSALIST  PUBLISHING  HOUSE. 

1889. 


Copyright,  1888, 
By  the  Universalist  Publishing  House. 


John  Wilson  and  Son,  Cambbidge. 


CONTENTS. 


Section  Page 

I.  The   Title    of    the    Book.  —  The    Greek 

Article 7 

II.  Significance  of  the  Word  "  Christ  "   .     .  9 

III.  Explanation  of  Important  Terms     ...  15 

IV.  The  "Logos"  or  "Word" 19 

V.     Opinions  concerning  Christ 23 

VI.    Human  Nature 30 

VII.     Human  Character 41 

VIII.  The  Nature  and  Character  of  Christ     .  44 

IX.    Christ  the  Word  of  God 50 

X.     Christ  the  Image  of  God 58 

XI.     Christ  the  Eternal  Life 61 

XII.  Christ  the  Revelation  of  God    ....  67 

XIII.  Christ  the  Example  and  Destiny  of  Man  72 

XIV,  Christ  the  Prophet,  Priest,  and  King     .  17 
Conclusion 94 


3tmQ  (2ri)ri0t,  t^e  final  proof  of  ^otJ 
iriitjj  us  antj  for  us,  —  sucf)  are  tje  zlzmtn^ 
tal  realities  upon  fe^ic]^  our  souls  sftoultJ 
rest,  f^e  tnljo  stantis  upon  tftese  tiibme 
facts  m  tlje  creation  anti  ftistorg  s^all  not 
lie  confountietJ. 

Newman  Smyth. 


JESUS   THE   CHRIST. 


THE  limits  of  this  little  book  will  permit 
no  exhaustive  discussion  of  the  subject  of 
which  it  treats.  Of  necessity  some  things  must 
be  omitted  which  it  might  be  desirable  and  help- 
ful to  consider.  There  is  no  room  for  any  nega- 
tive work.  We  can  take  no  space  to  refute 
doctrines  that  we  do  not  accept.  What  we  do 
not  teach  concerning  the  subject  must  be  largely 
inferred  from  what  we  do  teach. 

Neither  is  there  any  room  to  set  forth  the  his- 
torical development  of  the  doctrine  of  Christ. 
However  interesting  and  profitable  this  might 
be,  we  have  no  room  for  the  work.  What  the 
Church  has  held  concerning  Christ,  and  how  the 
doctrine  of  Christ  has  formulated  itself  through 
the  ages,  must  be  left  untouched. 

The  question  of  the  pre-existence  of  Christ 
must  also  be  passed  over.     However  interesting 


6  JESUS  THE  CHRIST. 

and  important  this  question  may  be,  the  limits 
of  this  volume  will  not  allow  us  to  enter  upon 
its  discussion.  In  fact,  our  choice  here  agrees 
very  well  with  the  necessity.  We  have  no  par- 
ticular desire  to  discuss  this  question,  for  we 
apprehend  that  the  real  Christology  of  the 
New  Testament  can  be  unfolded  without  it. 
What  Christ  was  in  this  world,  in  the  life  of 
humanity,  is  the  thing  of  transcendent  impor- 
tance, and  not  what  He  was  before  He  came  into 
this  world,  whether  a  realized  consciousness  or 
a  Divine  idea.  This  can  be  ascertained  and  set 
forth  very  satisfactorily  without  any  reference 
to  His  pre-existence. 

Our  endeavor,  therefore,  will  be  to  unfold  the 
doctrine  of  Christ  as  it  appears  in  His  life  and 
teachings,  and  in  the  record  of  the  Apostles. 
We  shall  try  to  go  at  once  to  the  heart  of  the 
matter,  and  grasp  the  real  significance  of  "  The 
Son  of  God,"  and  "  The  Son  of  Man,"  ascertain- 
ing what  He  really  was  in  His  relation  to  both 
God  and  man.  By  developing  a  true  and  posi- 
tive Christology,  we  hope  to  set  aside  that  which 
is  not  true,  and  give  a  helpful  and  saving  knowl- 
edge of  our  Lord  and  Master.  How  well  we  shall 
succeed  the  following  pages  must  determine. 


JESUS  THE  CHRIST.  7 

I.  —  The  Title  of  the  Book.  —  The  Greek 
Article. 

That  we  have  chosen  "  Jesus  the  Christ,"  for 
our  title  rather  than  "  Jesus  Christ,"  is  little 
more,  perhaps,  than  a  matter  of  taste.  We  have 
chosen  it  because  we  like  it  better,  and  not  be- 
cause we  attach  any  great  significance  to  the 
article.  In  our  English  versions  it  is  some- 
times found  before  the  word  "  Christ,"  and  some- 
times not.  The  same  is  true  in  the  original. 
The  Old  Version,  however,  does  not  always 
translate  the  article  where  it  is  found  before 
"  Christ "  in  the  Greek,  while  the  New  Version, 
we  believe,  always  does. 

It  is  not  always  easy  to  determine  the  exact 
force  of  the  Greek  article.  It  is  used  where  the 
idiom  of  our  language  does  not  require  it.  It  is 
often  used  before  proper  names,  though  fre- 
quently it  is  not  so  used,  when  the  reason  of  its 
insertion  or  omission  is  not  easy  to  discover, 
though  probably  such  a  reason  exists.  About 
all  we  can  see  in  the  New  Testament  that  seems 
like  a  rule  governing  its  use,  when  applied  to 
Christ,  is  that  when  "Christ"  is  merely  a  proper 
name,  the  name  of  the  personal  Jesus,  or  when 


8  JESUS  THE   CHRIST. 

it  is  an  appellative  of  Jesus  used  to  make  more 
certain  who  is  meant,  but  really  meaning  no  more 
than  "  Jesus,"  the  article  is  not  used.  When 
it  means  something  additional,  the  article  is 
used. 

Thus  in  the  first  verse  of  Matthew's  Gospel, 
where  we  read,  "  The  book  of  the  generation  of 
Jesus  Christ,"  and  further  on  in  the  same  chap- 
ter, where  we  read,  "  Now  the  birth  of  Jesus 
Christ  was  on  this  wise,"  there  is  no  article  be- 
fore "  Christ "  in  the  Greek.  But  when  Herod 
asks,  "  Where  Christ  should  be  born,"  ^  the  arti- 
cle is  in  the  Greek,  and  the  New  Version  trans- 
lates, "  Where  the  Christ  should  be  born."  So 
when  Peter  makes  his  confession,  "  Thou  art  the 
Christ,"  2  the  article  is  in  the  Greek,  and  both 
Versions  translate  it. 

That  this  rule  will  hold  good  in  all  cases,  we 
will  not  affirm ;  but  it  seems  to  give  some  reliable 
clew  to  the  way  in  which  the  article  is  used. 
When  "  Christ"  means  something  more  than 
the  personal  Jesus,  the  article  is  used,  and 
used  evidently  to  indicate  or  define  that  some- 
thing more.  When  the  thought  in  the  mind  of 
the  writer  is  of  a  particular  designation,  —  of  a 
1  Matthew  ii.  4.  2  Ibid.  xvi.  IG. 


JESUS  THE  CHRIST.  9 

specific  Christ,  —  then  he  uses  the  article ;  when 
it  is  not,  he  does  not  use  it. 

A  little  attention  to  the  meaning  of  the  names 
applied  to  the  Saviour  in  our  title  will  bring  this 
matter  out  and  show  all  the  significance  which 
we  desire  to  claim  for  the  Greek  article  when 
applied  to  Christ.  "Jesus"  is  the  Greek  form 
of  the  Hebrew  "  Joshua,"  and  means  "  Saviour." 
"  Thou  shalt  call  His  name  Jesus,  for  He  shall 
save  His  people  from  their  sins."  ^  It  was  con- 
ferred upon  Him  at  His  presentation  in  the  tem- 
ple, and  is  His  real,  proper,  personal  name.  It 
designates  Him  as  an  individual,  the  same  as 
Peter  or  John. 

n.  —  Significance  of  the  Word  "  Christ." 

Christos  (Christ)  is  from  a  Greek  root  that 
means  "to  rub  on  lightly  or  anoint,"  and  so 
means,  primarily,  "  anointed."  It  has  the  same 
signification  as  the  Hebrew  "  Messiah,"  and  is 
used  to  translate  that  Avord  into  Greek.  It  was 
customary  to  anoint  kings  and  priests  with  oil 
when  they  were  inducted  into  office.  So  "the 
anointed"  came  to  signify  one  consecrated  or 
set  apart  to  some  sacred  office  or  work.  The 
1  Matthew  i.  21. 


10  JESUS   THE   CHRIST. 

anointed  of  God  meant  one  specially  set  apart 
to  do  the  work  of  God.  Hence  "  Messiah  "  sig- 
nified one  specially  consecrated  to  do  the  will  of 
God,  and  "  Christ "  ( Christos)  had  the  same 
signification. 

As  applied  to  Jesus,  therefore,  it  means  the 
anointed  or  consecrated  one,  and  points  to  Him 
as  the  Hebrew  Messiah.  To  define  Him  as  such, 
the  sacred  writers  frequently,  if  not  always, 
place  the  article  before  "  Christ."  They  write 
"  the  Christ,"  or  "  Jesus  the  Christ,"  to  indicate 
that  they  are  speaking  of  a  particular  Christ, 
of  the  anointed  of  God,  of  "  the  one  that  should 
come,"  —  that  is,  of  the  expected  Messiah. 

''  Christ,"  therefore,  means  something  more 
than  the  personal  Jesus.  It  signifies  His  offi- 
cial, rather  than  His  personal  character,  as 
"  president "  in  our  country  signifies  the  office, 
and  not  the  man.  Of  course,  strictly  speaking, 
in  the  last  analysis,  there  is  no  distinction  be- 
tween the  office  and  the  man  ;  the  man  is  the 
office.  What  the  man  is,  determines  what  he 
does  ;  his  official  acts  are  but  the  outflow  of  his 
being.  As  Dorner  says  :  "  The  office  and  the 
person    intertwine    in   Him  ;  "  ^    and   Mulford  : 

1  Systematic  Theology,  vol.  iii.  p.  379. 


JESUS  THE   CHRIST.  11 

"  His  own  person  was  the  temple  in  which  God 
would  meet  man,  and  man  might  meet  God."  ^ 
Nevertheless,  the  distinction  exists  in  thought, 
and  is  helpful  to  a  right  understanding  of  the 
Gospel. 

It  is  quite  evident  that  this  distinction  existed 
in  the  thought  of  the  New  Testament  writers,  at 
least  in  the  beginning,  and  they  indicate  it  when 
they  call  Jesus  tJie  Christ.  By  this  name  they 
designate  His  official  character,  and  claim  that 
He  was  "  The  Anointed  One^^^  the  Hebrew  Mes- 
siah; though  after  a  time  the  person  and  the 
office  became  so  blended  in  their  thought,  it  is 
likely,  that  they  used  the  word  "  Christ "  to  sig- 
nify the  person  as  well  as  the  office,  and  then 
they  sometimes  dropped  the  article. 

The  distinction  between  the  name&  "  Jesus  "  and 
"  Christ "  is  well  expressed  by  Archdeacon  Far- 
rar.  "  The  Hebrew  Messiah,"  he  says,  "  and  the 
Greek  Christ  were  names  which  represented  His 
office  as  the  anointed  Prophet,  Priest,  and  King, 
but  Jesus  was  the  personal  name  He  bore  as  one 
who  '  emptied  Himself  of  His  glory '  to  become 
a  *  sinless  man  among  men.'  "  ^  Abating  what- 
ever of  a  Trinitarian  sense  they  may  have  had 

1  Republic  of  God,  p.  12.  -  Life  of  Christ,  p.  9. 


12  JESUS  THE   CHRIST. 

in  the  mind  of  the  writer,  these  words  clearly 
set  forth  the  distinction  between  the  two  names 
under  consideration. 

Our  title,  then,  sets  forth  the  real  subject- 
matter  of  the  book.  We  are  to  write  of  "  Jesus 
the  Christ ; "  not  of  the  earthly  life  of  Jesus,  but 
of  that  in  Jesus  that  constituted  Him  the  Christ, 
the  sent  of  God,  the  anointed  of  the  Most  High. 
In  other  words,  we  are  to  unfold  the  Christ  of 
Christianity,  the  historical  Christ,  the  Christ 
that  is  placed  before  us  on  the  pages  of  the  New 
Testament. 

To  us  there  is  no  other  Christ.  We  have  no 
knowledge  of  any  Christ  before  or  outside  oi* 
Christianity.  To  speak  of  the  Christ,  or  "  the 
Christos,"  that  existed  before  Christ,  or  that 
exists  now  where  Christ  is  not  known,  is  to  us 
to  affirm  as  a  fact  that  which  is  not  a  fact. 
It  is  to  talk  of  the  sweetness  of  the  rose  witlv 
out  the  rose.  Unquestionably  there  was  an 
"  ideal  Christ,"  or  rather  an  idea  of  Christ, 
before  the  advent  of  Jesus  ;  but  it  was  not 
Christ,  any  more  than  an  idea  of  a  world  is  a 
world.  Without  question  there  is  some  of  the 
truth  and  love  of  Christ  in  other  religions  ;  but 
they   are  not  the   Christ,   any    more  than   the 


JESUS   THE  CHRIST.  13 

fragrance  of  the  rose  is  the  rose,  or  the  materials 
of  a  temple  are  the  temple.  The  Christ  of  the 
New  Testament  is  not  an  ideal,  but  an  ideal  real- 
ized. It  is  God's  idea  of  the  Christ  absolutely 
lived.  Christ  is  not  truth  in  the  abstract,  but 
"  truth  in  the  concrete  ; "  it  is  truth  realized, 
embodied,  and  lived.  It  is  the  Spirit  of  God  put 
into  and  filling  full  an  actual  life.  There  is  no 
such  Christ  as  this  in  the  other  religions  ;  and  to 
dignif}"  so  much  of  the  truth  and  spirit  of  Christ 
as  are  found  in  other  religions  as  "  the  Christos," 
is  to  turn  men  away  from  the  "  Sun  of  Right- 
eousness," and  set  them  to.following  a  rush-light. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  deny  any  good  there  may 
be  in  other  religions  in  order  to  bring  out  the 
glory  of  Christianity.  Still  less  is  it  necessary 
to  exalt  that  good  into  the  fulness  of  Christ  in 
order  to  have  that  good  appreciated.  Christian- 
ity has  a  good  that  is  unique,  that  is  peculiar  to 
itself ;  and  while  we  may  not  say  that  the  good 
of  other  religions  is  not  of  the  same  nature,  it  is 
not  the  good  of  Christianity,  any  more  than  the 
sour  crab  is  the  luscious  greening,  or  the  twilight 
of  early  morning  the  brightness  of  noonday. 

Nothing  is  likely  to  be  more  misleading,  there- 
fore, than  the  teaching  that  "  the  Christos  "  "  is 


14  JESUS  THE  CHRIST. 

something  different  from  and  larger  in  signifi- 
cance than  the  historic  Christ,"  or  "  wider 
in  its  reign  than  historic  Christianity,  or  older 
than  its  manifestation  in  Jesus."  ^  There  is  no 
"  Christos  "  save  as  the  truth  and  love,  spirit  and 
purpose  of  God  were  realized  in  Jesus.  There 
are  truth  and  love,  spirit  and  purpose,  but  these 
do  not  constitute  the  Christ  until  they  are  or- 
ganized into  a  perfect  life,  any  more  than  the 
elements  of  the  human  body  constitute  a  living 
organism  without  being  organized  into  life. 
Jesus  is  the  organic  truth  of  God,  the  Divine 
Life  realized.  It  is  this  that  constituted  Him 
"  the  Christ."  Hence  outside  of  Him  there  is 
no  Christ. 

Even  if  we  dignify  the  good  there  is  in  other 
religions  as  ''  the  Christos,"  it  is  not  larger  or 
"  wider  in  its  reign "  than  the  historic  Christ, 
unless  a  part  is  greater  than  the  whole.  "  Tlie 
Christos"  outside  of  Christianity  is  confessedly 
only  a  fragment  of  the  real  Christ.  No  matter, 
therefore,  how  wide  its  reign,  it  is  only  the  reign 
of  a  fragment,  and  not  the  reign  of  Christ. 

We  dismiss,  therefore,  all  this  notion  of  "  the 
Christos"  that   is  something  more  and  larger 

1  Sermon  by  Dr.  H.  W.  Thomas,  on  "  The  Essential  Christ." 


JESUS  THE   CHRIST.  15 

than  historic  Christianity,  without  further  com- 
ment. It  is  but  the  revival  of  an  old  idea  that 
never  had  any  foundation  in  reality.  The  real 
Christ  is  found  nowhere  save  in  Christianity. 
Hence  His  reign  is  commensurate  with  the  reign 
of  Christianity.  He  goes  where  historic  Chris- 
tianity goes,  for  He  is  in  all  of  His  fulness  the 
Christianity  of  which  the  New  Testament  is  the 
record.  Our  study  then  verily  is  not  of  any 
imaginary  "  Christos  "  that  was  before,  and  is 
now,  outside  of  Christianity,  but  of  the  Christ 
of  the  New  Testament,  —  even  of  "  Jesus  the 
Christ." 

ni.  —  Explanation  of  Important  Terms. 

We  shall  have  occasion  to  use  some  terms  in 
this  book  that  it  may  be  well  to  explain  at  the 
outset.  We  shall  speak  of  the  nature  and  of  the 
character  of  Christ.  It  will  be  helpful,  there- 
fore, to  define  these  terms  clearly,  and  make 
plain  the  sense  in  which  we  use  them. 

The  nature  of  anything  is  what  it  is  by  cre- 
ation. It  is  its  inherent  powers,  those  that  be- 
long to  it  as  a  being,  that  constitute  it  what  it  is. 
The  word  is  from  naseor,  "  to  be  born."  Hence, 
the  nature  of  anything  is  what  it  is  by  birth,  by 


16  JESUS  THE   CHRIST. 

creation.  Character  is  what  is  wrought  into  or 
upon  anything.  The  word  comes  from  a  Greek 
root,  that  means  "to  cut  into  furrows  or  en- 
grave." Hence,  character  is  that  which  is  cut 
into  or  engraved  upon  the  nature.  In  other 
words,  it  is  that  which  is  produced  by  the  devel- 
opment, cultivation,  or  training  of  the  nature. 
It  is  not  the  nature,  but  the  product  of  the  nature 
under  any  given  environment ;  under  any  speci- 
fied conditions  of  development  and  culture. 

For  instance,  it  is  the  nature  of  an  apple-tree 
to  bear  apples,  not  to  bear  peaches  or  plums. 
Its  inherent  powers  are  such  that  apples  are  its 
native  product.  Its  character  depends  on  the 
kind  and  quantity  of  the  fruit  produced.  If  it 
produces  an  abundance  of  good  fruit,  it  is  a  good 
tree ;  if  a  small  quantity  of  poor  fruit,  it  is  a 
poor  tree.  The  character  of  the  tree  is  known 
by  the  quantity  and  quality  of  its  fruit ;  its  na- 
ture by  the  kind  of  fruit  it  bears.  If  it  bears 
apples  it  is  an  apple-tree,  whatever  be  the  amount 
or  quality  of  its  fruit. 

So  the  nature  of  man  is  what  man  is  by  cre- 
ation ;  his  character  is  what  he  has  become  by 
cultivation.  His  character,  therefore,  may  be 
good  or  bad,  but  his  nature  is  ever  the  same. 


JESUS   THE   CHRIST.  17 

Indeed,  to  change  his  nature  would  be  to  destroy 
his  humanity;  that  is,  he  would  cease  to  be  a 
man.  This  is  sufficient,  we  trust,  to  make  clear 
the  meaning  of  these  two  words,  and  show  the 
relation  of  one  to  the  other.  Nature  is  the  prod- 
uct of  the  Creative  Energy  ;  character  is  the 
product  of  this  nature,  under  whatsoever  circum- 
stances or  environment  it  may  be  developed. 

It  will  be  helpful  also  to  come  to  a  clear  un- 
derstanding of  the  terms  "  son"  and  "  child,"  as 
used  in  the  Scriptures.  Christ  is  frequently 
called  the  "  Son  of  God,"  or  "  Son  of  man."  It 
is  important,  therefore,  to  have  some  definite 
idea  of  the  term  "  son,"  as  thus  used.  In  Bible 
language  the  son  or  child  of  anything  signifies, 
in  a  general  way,  a  likeness  to  that  thing.  It  is 
an  expression  that  always  conveys  the  idea  of 
likeness,  near  or  remote.  It  does  not  always 
signify  natural  kinship,  but  it  always  signifies 
resemblance.  One  thing  is  not  said  to  be  the 
child  or  son  of  another  unless  there  is  some  re- 
semblance between  the  two. 

Thus,  "children  of  God"  are  Godlike  chil- 
dren ;  "  children  of  the  devil "  are  devilish  or 
wicked  children ;  "  sons  of  thunder"  are  eloquent 
or  powerful  speakers,  —  that  is,  "thunderous" 

2 


18  JESUS   THE   CHRIST. 

sons  ;  "  children  of  light "  are  spiritually  illu- 
minated children  ;  ''  children  of  this  world  "  are 
worldly  children  ;  "  children  of  disobedience '' 
are  disobedient  children ;  "  children  of  Abra- 
ham "  are  like  Abraham,  full  of  faith.  So  in  all 
cases.  The  child  or  son  of  anything  is  one  that 
in  some  respects  resembles  that  thing.  Indeed, 
relation  always  implies  resemblance.  One  thing 
can  have  no  relation  to  another  unless  it  resem- 
bles tliat  other. 

"  The  Son  of  God,"  therefore,  is  one  who  is 
like  God.  It  does  not  necessarily  imply  that 
God  is  his  creator,  —  though  this,  of  course,  is 
included  when  we  read  that  man  or  Christ  is  the 
son  or  child  of  God,  —  but  it  does  imply  that  he 
is  like  God  in  some  respect,  —  in  what  respect 
is  to  be  deterniined  (but  the  relation  given  in 
the  expression  implies  that  in  some  respect  he  is 
like  God). 

So  "  the  Son  of  man  "  means  one  who  is  like 
man,  or  like  a  man.  It  does  not  necessarily 
mean  that  he  is  a  man,  but  it  does  necessarily 
mean  that  he  is  like  man  in  some  respects. 
Doubtless  the  phrase,  "  the  son  of  man,"  or  "  the 
children  of  men,"  frequently  means  man  or  men  ; 
Ijut  it  does  not  necessarily  mean  this.     It  neces- 


JESUS  THE   CHRIST.  19 

sarily  means  a  likeness  to  mau  or  men,  but  not 
necessarily  man  or  men.  If  we  hold  that  the 
son  of  anything  is  synonymous  with  that  thing, 
then  we  should  have  to  hold  that  "  sons  of  thun- 
der "  were  literally  thunder.  "  The  Son  of  man," 
therefore, does  not  necessarily  mean  man  or  aman, 
but  one  who  is  like  man  in  some  respect,  —  in 
what  respect  must  be  determined,  —  but  in  some 
respect  is  necessitated  by  the  relation  given. 

lY.  — The  "Logos"   or   "Word." 

The  term  "  Logos,"  translated  "  Word,"  ought 
also  to  receive  some  explanation.  There  is  no 
question  as  to  the  literal  meaning  of  this  term. 
It  literally  means  "  word,"  "  saying,"  "  speech," 
the  outward  form  of  the  inward  thought ;  and 
sometimes  covers  both  the  inward  thought  and 
outward  form  or  image.  Hence  it  enters  into 
composition  as  the  discourse,  theory,  or  doctrine 
of  anything.  Thus  "  Christology "  is  the  dis- 
course, theory,  or  doctrine  of  Christ.  "  Theol- 
ogy "  is  the  discourse,  theory,  or  doctrine  of  Grod. 

Saint  John  seems  to  use  this  term  in  a  special 
or  technical  sense.  Thus  he  opens  his  Gospel 
by  saying,  "  In  the  beginning  was  the  Word,  and 
the   Word  was  with   God,  and  the  Word  was 


20  JESUS  THE   CHRIST. 

God."^  And  further  on  he  says,  "And  the 
Word  was  made  flesh  and  dwelt  among  us."  ^ 
What  can  be  the  meaning  of  this  term  here  ? 
Different  answers  are  given.  Some  maintain 
that  by  the  "  Word  "  is  meant  God  Himself,  the 
Self-existent  and  Eternal  One ;  and  hence  that 
this  One,  the  Infinite  God,  "  was  made  flesh,"  — 
that  is,  became  the  "  man  Christ  Jesus,"  so  that 
Christ  is  really  God  in  human  form,  or  the  "  God- 
man." 

Others  hold  that  the  word  "  Logos  "  does  not 
mean  "  God,"  but  the  power,  wisdom,  reason,  or 
creative  energy  of  God ;  and  hence  that  this 
power,  wisdom,  reason,  or  creative  energy  of 
God  "  was  made  flesh,"  —  that  is,  became  a  man, 
and  constituted  the  man  "  the  Christ,"  the  Son 
of  God  and  Saviour  of  the  world.  John  has  in 
mind,  it  is  claimed,  the  Gnostic  heresies  of  his 
time,  and  attempts  to  so  state  the  truth  as  to  re- 
fute those  heresies.  Among  those  heresies  or 
false  doctrines  there  was  one,  that  the  world  was 
not  made  by  the  Supreme  God,  but  by  an  inferior 
being  called  the  "  Logos."  To  refute  this,  John 
asserts  that  the  Logos,  or  Creative  Energy,  was 
none  other  than  God  Himself ;  and  that  by  this 

1  John  i.  1.  2  Ibid.  14. 


JESUS  THE  CHRIST.  21 

energy,  that  is,  by  God  Himself,  were  all  things 
made.  Then  to  refute  another  heresy,  —  that 
the  body  of  Christ  was  not  real,  but  only  an 
appearance,  —  he  asserts  that  this  Creative  En- 
ergy became  flesh,  entered  into  and  possessed  a 
real  man,  who  dwelt  among  them  as  such. 

Of  these  two  answers,  the  latter,  we  appre- 
hend, comes  much  nearer  the  truth  than  the 
former ;  still  we  think  that  the  real  thought  of 
the  Apostle  can  be  brought  out  more  clearly,  if 
we  give  the  term  "  Word  "  more  of  its  primary 
and  literal  signification,  and  less  of  the  special 
and  technical  one. 

Now  a  word  is  the  expression  of  an  idea,  the 
outward  form  of  the  inward  thought.  It  is  an 
effort  to  objectify  the  subjective,  to  photograph 
the  inward  state.  It  is  therefore  a  picture  ad- 
dressed to  the  ear,  as  the  image  of  anything  is  a 
picture  addressed  to  the  eye.  If  it  be  a  true 
word,  if  it  accurately  represent  the  inward  state 
of  the  speaker,  all  there  is  of  him  goes  into  it. 
His  thought,  feeling,  will,  in  a  certain  sense  his 
very  personality,  his  very  ])eing,  as  it  were, 
projects  itself  into  the  word,  so  that  it  becomes  a 
perfect  picture,  a  complete  representation  of  all 
he  is. 


22  JESUS   THE   CHRIST. 

Give  this  meaning  to  the  term  "  Word,"  and 
we  get,  we  apprehend,  just  the  thought  that  John 
wished  to  express.  It  is  that  Christ  is  the  true 
word  of  God,  representing  to  us  all  that  God  is ; 
revealing  the  inward  state  of  the  Infinite,  His 
absolute  thought,  feeling,  will.  "  The  Word  was 
made  flesh  ; "  that  is,  the  thought,  feeling,  and 
will  of  God  so  entered  into,  filled,  and  empow- 
ered the  man  Christ  Jesus,  that  He  became  the 
perfect  representative  of  God. 

We  shall  have  occasion  to  bring  out  this 
thought  quite  fully  in  these  pages.  We  intro- 
duce it  here  that  we  may  get  before  us  the  mean- 
ing of  the  term  "  Word,"  when  applied  to  Christ. 
It  really  has  its  original  and  primary  meaning. 
It  really  means  "  Word."  Professor  Swing  hints 
the  truth  in  a  recent  sermon.  "  When  John  de- 
clared Christ  to  be  the  Word,"  he  says,  "he  may 
have  meant  that  He  was  the  summing-up  of  the 
will  of  God  toward  man,  the  full  utterance  and 
full  eloquence  of  the  sky,  .  .  .  the  term  that 
was  in  the  beginning  with  God,  the  picture  of 
that  supreme  thought." 

Prebendary  Griffith  develops  this  idea  more 
fully  :  "•  The  meaning  of  the  term  has  been  hit 
by  Goethe,  when  he  renders  it, '  In  the  beginning 


JESUS  THE   CHRIST.  23 

was  the  Act,'  for  Word  constitutes  the  passage 
from  the  inward  Devising  to  the  outward  Do- 
ing. In  human  experience  our  word  is  the 
middle  term  between  purpose  and  performance. 
Hence,  by  a  just  analogy  the  Word  of  God  is  the 
utterance  (that  is,  outerance)  of  the  will  of  God, 
and  thus  the  commencement  of  the  work  of  God, 
translating  His  invisible  subjectivity  into  visible 
objectivity.  The  comparison  is  so  natural,  that 
we  find  it  in  the  Yedas  :  '  The  word  of  Brahm  has 
begotten  all  things ; '  and  in  the  Zend,  where 
Honover  (the  word)  is  the  author  of  creation. 
And  in  Persia  the  Prime  Minister,  the  acting 
representative  of  the  secluded  monarch,  was 
called  '  the  Word  of  the  King.'  "  i 

These  quotations  enable  us  to  see  that  the 
term  "  Word,"  when  applied  to  Christ,  really  has 
very  much  of  its  original  and  primary  signifi- 
cation. Christ  is  the  utterance  of  the  Divine 
thought,  feeling,  and  will.  Other  terms  that  we 
may  have  occasion  to  use  will  require  no  special 
explanation. 

V.  —  Opinions  Concerning  Christ. 
Extreme  views  prevail  concerning  Christ.     On 
one  side  is  the  high  Trinitarian  view,  which  iden- 
1  Gospel  of  the  Divine  Life,  p.  10. 


24  JESUS  THE  CHRIST. 

tifies  Christ  with  the  absolute  God.  Accordinor 
to  this  view  Christ  possessed  two  natures,  —  one 
human  and  the  other  divine,  —  but  so  united  as 
to  form  one  person,  and  that  person  the  absolute 
Deity. 

On  the  other  side  is  the  extreme  humanitarian 
view.  According  to  this  view  Christ  was  a  man 
and  nothing  more.  He  had  no  superiority  over 
other  men,  unless  He  may  be  regarded  as  a  reli- 
gious genius.  As  some  men  have  a  genius  for 
science  or  art,  so  Christ  had  a  genius  for  religion 
and  the  gospel,  so  much  of  it  as  belongs  to  Him 
is  the  product  of  that  genius.  He  wrought  no 
miracles,  and  possessed  no  supernatural  wisdom 
or  power.  He  was  in  no  special  sense  "  the 
sent "  of  God,  or  Saviour  of  the  world.  He  was 
merely  a  religious  reformer,  like  Luther  or  Wes- 
ley, teaching  much  truth,  but  some  error ;  and 
is  not  to  be  implicitly  followed.  He  has  no 
authority  over  faith  and  life,  any  more  than  any 
other  wise  and  good  man.  He  is  not  the  Christ, 
the  Guide  and  Saviour,  but  only  one  among  many 
guides,  a  saviour  among  many  saviours. 

Such  are  the  extreme  views  which  exist  con- 
cerning Christ.  One  exalts  Christ  to  the  very 
supreme  God ;   the  other  humbles  Him  to  the 


JESUS   THE  CHRIST.  25 

rank  of  mere  man ;  and  between  the  two  the 
Christian  world  oscillates.  Men  swing  from  one 
extreme  to  the  other.  If  one  comes  to  the  con- 
clusion that  Christ  is  not  God,  he  is  very  likely 
to  conclude  that  He  is  only  a  man.  If  he  rejects 
the  Trinitarian  view,  he  is  quite  likely  to  swing 
over  to  the  humanitarian.  On  the  other  hand,  if 
he  cannot  bring  himself  to  believe  that  Christ  is 
a  man,  and  nothing  more,  he  is  very  likely  to 
take  the  opposite  extreme,  and  affirm  His  absolute 
Deity. 

The  negative  style '  of  argument  prevails  on 
either  side.  Prove  that  Christ  is  not  God,  and 
we  are  supposed  to  have  proved  that  He  is  a 
man  and  nothing  more.  Prove  that  He  is  not  a 
mere  man,  and  you  are  supposed  to  have  proved 
that  He  is  God.  It  does  not  seem  to  occur  to 
people  that  between  God  and  man  there  is  a  long 
way  ;  that  between  the  finite  and  the  infinite 
there  is  a  vast  distance ;  and  that  Christ  may  be 
something  unique,  neither  absolutely  God  nor 
absolutely  man,  but  sui  generis^  —  a  being  after 
his  own  order,  a  "  mediator  between  God  and 
man."  Surely  there  is  room  enough  for  such  a 
being. 

It  is  well  to  observe  that  an  extreme  seldom 


26  JESUS   THE   CHRIST. 

or  never  contains  the  whole  truth.  Its  vision 
of  the  truth  is  usually  one-sided  and  distorted. 
While  it  contains  some  truth,  it  will  contain  also 
some  error ;  and  its  opposite  will  contain  some 
truth  and  some  error.  Only  by  some  process  of 
elimination  and  combination,  therefore,  can  the 
whole  or  the  essential  truth  be  seen  in  cases  where 
these  extreme  views  prevail.  The  truth  in  each 
must  be  separated  from  the  -error,  and  a  higher 
unity  be  found,  in  which  the  truths  thus  separated, 
or  the  different  sides  of  the  truth  thus  seen,  will 
combine  and  form  the  whole  or  the  essential  truth. 
In  the  case  of  Christ  it  is  very  clear  that  there 
is  truth  in  both  of  these  extreme  views.  The 
Scriptures  present  this  two-sided  view  of  the 
Saviour.  They  make  it  clear  that  He  was  a  man  ; 
that  He  had  a  human  body,  and  a  human  mind, 
or  at  least  a  mind  that  is  governed  by  the  same 
laws  and  acts  just  as  a  human  mind  acts ;  that 
He  lived  and  walked  and  talked  among  men  as  a 
man.  Of  this  there  can  be  no  question.  It  is 
the  clearest  of  all  facts  that  Christ  was  a  man, 
and  not  merely  the  semblance  of  a  man.  What- 
ever more  He  may  have  been.  He  was  clearly 
and  emphatically  a  man.  He  was  "  the  Son  of 
man,"  whatever  else  He  mav  have  been.     The 


JESUS  THE  CHRIST.  27 

likeness  between  Him  and  man  was  so  complete 
that  He  unquestionably  belonged  to  the  human 
species. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Scriptures  make  it 
equally  clear  that  He  was  no  ordinary  man ; 
that  He  was  something  more  than  empirical 
man  ;  that  He  rose  far  above  man  as  experience 
shows  man  to  us,  as  man  appears  on  the  pages  of 
history.  No  one  candidly  reading  the  New  Tes- 
tament can  fail,  it  would  seem,  to  be  impressed 
with  this  fact.  The  being  presented  therein  is 
not  a  mere  man.  He  is  something  more  than 
that ;  there  is  something  Divine  about  Him.  In 
some  way  He  rises  above  the  race  to  which  He 
somehow  clearly  belongs,  and  takes  a  place  that 
is  unique,  that  belongs  to  Him  alone.  The  whole 
trend  of  the  Christian  Scriptures  runs  in  this 
direction.  The  titles  given  to  Him,  the  way  He 
is  spoken  of,  the  impression  He  made  upon  His 
contemporaries,  the  works  which  He  did,  and  the 
■way  in  which  He  taught,  —  in  fine,  the  whole 
scope  of  the  record  we  have  of  His  life  and 
character  and  teachings  carries  with  it  the  con- 
viction that  He  was  superhuman  ;  that  He  pos- 
sessed a  Divine  element  or  quality  not  found  in 
empirical  man  ;  that  He  bore  a  likeness  to  God 


28  JESUS  THE  CHRIST. 

that  was  peculiar  to  Himself,  shared  in  as  yet  by 
no  other  human  being.  This  the  record  makes 
very  certain.  It  is  just  as  certain  that  He  was 
something  more  than  mere  man  as  it  is  that  He 
was  a  man.  He  was  just  as  certainly  "  the  Son 
of  God  "  as  "  the  Son  of  man." 

Here,  then,  we  have  the  two  sides  of  the  New 
Testament  picture  of  the  Christ.  Here  are  the 
essential  truths  contained  in  these  extreme 
views.  How  shall  we  unite  them  so  as  to  form 
a  consistent  whole  ?  How  shall  we  grasp  both 
sides  of  this  picture  so  as  to  get  before  us  a  per- 
fect likeness  of  our  Master  ?  This  has  been  the 
question  of  the  ages.  This  is  the  problem  with 
which  the  Church  has  grappled  through  almost 
its  whole  history.  "VVellnigh  from  the  beginning 
until  now  the  Church  has  essayed  to  solve  this 
problem,  to  bring  into  a  harmonious  whole 
the  Divine  and  human  elements  in  Christ ;  to 
show  how  Christ  is,  and  was,  both  "  the  Son  of 
man  "  and  "  the  Son  of  God."  That  we  shall 
solve  this  problem  to  our  own  or  the  world's  sat- 
isfaction is  not  to  be  hoped.  Still,  an  effort  in 
this  direction  is  necessary  in  any  work  on  Chris- 
tology ;  and  every  effort,  it  may  be,  brings  us  a 
little  nearer  the  truth. 


JESUS  THE  CHRIST.  29 

Let  US  begin,  then,  by  inquiring,  Why  is  this  a 
problem  ?  What  makes  it  a  problem  ?  Why  has 
it  been  found  so  difficult  to  unite  the  human 
and  Divine  in  Christ  ?  What  has  so  separated 
the  human  and  Divine  that  to  unite  them  in 
Christ  has  become  such  a  herculean  task  ?  Evi- 
dently, it  is  a  certain  doctrine  concerning  hu- 
man nature.  Certain  ideas  concerning  man  have 
caused  this  to  be  so  great  a  problem.  Man 
has  been  completely  separated  from  God ;  a 
great  gulf  has  been  created  between  the  two. 
The  child  has  been  utterly  divorced  from  the 
Father.  Human  nature  has  been  held  to  be  to- 
tally corrupt ;  man  is  totally  depraved.  Hence 
he  is  at  the  opposite  pole  from  God  ;  they  have 
nothing  in  common  ;  they  are  radically  unlike, 
absolutely  no  relation  exists  between  them. 
Hence  the  problem,  to  unite  them  in  Christ. 
How  can  this  great  gulf  be  bridged  ?  How  can 
two  natures  so  radically  unlike  be  united  in  one 
being  ?  How  can  a  totally  depraved  nature  be 
united  to  an  infinitely  holy  nature  ?  How  can 
Christ  partake,  at  the  same  time,  of  a  nature 
wholly  corrupt  and  of  one  absolutely  pure? 
How  can  He  bring  together  and  unite  two  things 
that  are  separated  by  "  the  whole  diameter  of  the 


30  JESUS    THE   CHRIST. 

universe  "  ?     How  can  He  marry  the  oil  and  the 
water  ? 

This  is  the  problem  with  which  the  Church 
has  been  struggling  for  ages.  To  solve  this 
problem  has  ')een  the  task  of  all  Christology. 
That  it  never  has  been  solved  is  not  surprising, 
for  the  solution  is  a  philosophical  impossibility. 
Given  the  problem  as  stated,  and  the  solution  is 
not  in  the  region  of  possibility.  You  may  as 
well  undertake  to  square  the  circle.  Given  a 
nature  in  man  totally  depraved,  utterly  unlike 
the  nature  of  God,  and  you  can  never  give  them 
a  rational  union  in  Christ.  Christ  can  never 
unite  into  one  harmonious  whole  such  absolute 
opposites.  The  problem  to  be  solved,  therefore, 
must  be  differently  stated.  That  which  makes 
it  unsolvable  must  be  examined.  Human  nature 
must  have  a  rehearing.  We  must  see  if  human 
nature  is  so  radically  different  from  the  Divine  ; 
we  must  see  if  there  is  not  a  close  resemblance 
between  the  two.  We  proceed  to  inquire  into 
the  real  nature  of  man. 

Yl.  —  Human  Nature. 

We  have  seen  that  the  nature  of  anything  is 
what   it   is   by   creation.     The   nature   of  man 


JESUS   THE   CHRIST.  31 

therefore  is  what  he  is  by  creation.  How  then 
was  man  created  ?  What  was  his  nature  in  the 
beginning  ?  ^'  So  God  created  man  in  His  own 
image,  in  the  image  of  God  created  He  him."  ^ 
This  is  an  explicit  and  definite  answer  to  our 
question.  Man  was  created  in  the  image  of  God  ;  ■ 
therefore,  in  nature,  man  is  like  God  and  God  is 
like  man.  The  relation  between  them  is  one  of 
mutual  resemblance,  —  the  relation  of  father  and 
child. 

There  are  two  ways  in  which  this  truth  is 
sought  to  be  set  aside  or  made  of  no  real  signifi- 
cance. One  is  the  way  of  theology  ;  the  other 
the  way  of  philosophy.  Theology  seeks  to  set 
aside  this  truth  by  affirming  that  the  image  of 
God  in  man  was  destroyed  by  sin.  It  admits 
that  man  was  created  in  the  image  of  God  ;  but  it 
holds,  or  lias  held,  that  sin  destroyed  that  image. 
Man  sinned,  and  with  that  sin  disappeared  his 
original  likeness  to  God.  Hence  the  great  diffi- 
culty of  seeing  in  Christ  both  Divine  and  human 
nature,  since  there  is  no  longer  any  relation  be- 
tween them.  To  remove  this  difficulty,  therefore, 
it  must  be  seen  that  this  relation  is  not  lost ;  that 
sin  does  not  destroy  the  Divine  image  in  man. 

1  Genesis  i.  27. 


32  JESUS   THE   CHRIST. 

That  it  does  not  is  evidenced  by  the  fact  that, 
if  it  did,  man  would  cease  to  be  man.  Confess- 
edly it  is  this  image  of  God  in  man  that  consti- 
tutes his  manhood,  that  makes  him  man.  God 
created  the  other  animals,  but  He  did  not  create 
them  in  His  own  image ;  therefore  they  are  not 
man,  they  are  not  of  the  genus  homo.  He  cre- 
ated man  in  His  own  image,  therefore  he  is  man. 
Hence,  if  sin  has  destroyed  that  image,  man  has 
ceased  to  be.  The  being  we  call  man  is  not 
man.  The  wreck  and  ruin  of  man  he  may  be,  but 
man  he  is  not. 

But  further,  ceasing  to  be  man  he  has 
ceased  to  be  accountable  to  God  as  man.  He 
is  no  longer  under  any  obligations  to  love 
and  obey  God.  He  has  fallen  out  of  the  cate- 
gory of  accountable  beings.  Having  lost  the 
Divine  likeness,  he  is  no  longer  the  child  of 
God;  and  ceasing  to  be  a  child  of  God,  God 
has  ceased  to  have  any  claim  to  his  love  and 
obedience.  As  well  ask  a  stick  or  a  stone  to 
love  and  obey  God,  as  to  ask  man  after  you 
have  taken  from  him  that  moral  likeness  to 
God  which  gives  him  the  power  to  love  and 
obey. 

Such  being  the  fatal  consequences  of  setting 


JESUS  THE   CHRIST.  33 

aside  this  great  truth  that  man  by  nature  is 
in  the  image  of  God,  theology  is  modifying  its 
doctrine.  It  hardly  holds  any  longer  that  sin 
absolutely  destroyed  the  Divine  image,  but  only 
that  it  perverted,  marred,  or  blackened  that 
image.  Thus  Dorner  says  that  the  Scriptures 
''  ascribe  to  the  first  pair  innocence  and  purity 
indeed,  but  not  moral  indefectibility,  perfec- 
tion, and  holiness."  ^  The  Divine  image  in  man, 
therefore,  not  being  in  a  primitive  moral  per- 
fection or  holiness,  sin  did  not  destroy  that 
image. 

Indeed,  the  Scriptures  make  it  very  certain 
that  sin  did  not  and  does  not  destroy  the  Divine 
image  in  man  ;  for  long  after  sin  entered  the 
world,  this  image  is  made  the  reason  and  ground 
of  the  law  against  taking  human  life.  "  Whoso 
sheddeth  man's  blood,  by  man  shall  his  blood  be 
shed  :  for  in  the  image  of  God  made  He  man."  ^ 
Human  life  is  to  be  held  sacred  because  man  is 
in  the  image  of  God.  Besides,  the  fundamental 
-doctrine  of  Christianity  is  that  man  is  the  child 
of  God,  which  he  cannot  be  unless  his  nature 
is  like  the  Divine  nature.     So  far  as  theology  is 

1  Systematic  Theology,  vol.  ii.  p.  78. 

2  Genesis  ix.  6. 

3 


34  JESUS   THE   CHRIST. 

concerned,  therefore,  it  must  be  conceded  that 
man  not  only  was,  but  is  and  ever  7nust  be,  in 
the  image  of  God  by  nature.^ 

But  while  theology  must  concede  this,  philoso- 
phy, or  a  certain  kind  of  philosophy,  comes  in  to 
deny  it.  Very  clear  it  is,  that  if  man  is  in  the 
image  of  God,  God  is  in  the  image  of  man,  and 
we  have  a  very  sure  way  of  knowing  something 
of  God.  By  studying  the  image  of  God  in  man, 
we  can  know  God.  The  picture  may  not  be  per- 
fect, but  what  it  tells  us  is  of  the  everlasting 
truth. 

The  philosophy  of  "  the  unknowable,"  there- 
fore, cannot  allow  that  man  is  in  any  sense  like 
God  or  God  like  man.  To  teach  that  doctrine  is 
to  fall  into  the  great  vice  of  anthropomorphism, 
of  making  God  like  man.  "  The  infinite,"  we  are 
told,  "  is  the  other  than  the  finite."  So  we  can 
only  know  the  finite,  "the  conditioned."  The 
infinite,  "  the  unconditioned,"  is  beyond  the  pos- 
sibility of  human  knowledge. 

Admit  that  "  the  infinite  is  the  other  than 
the  finite,"  yet  the  finite  must  have  its  ground 
in  the  infinite.     As  Mulford  says,  "We  cannot 

1  For  a  further  discussion  of  this  subject,  see  "  Manuals  of 
Faith  and  Duty,"  No.  1.  —Editor. 


JESUS  THE  CHRIST.  35 

deduce  .  .  .  the  eternal  from  the  temporal,  nor  the 
infinite  from  the  finite  ;  and  yet  the  temporal  has 
its  ground  in  the  eternal,  and  the  finite  in  the 
infinite."  1  But  if  the  finite  has  its  ground  in 
the  infinite,  then  there  must  be  some  likeness  be- 
tween them ;  for  one  thing  cannot  have  its  ground 
in  another  without  resembling  that  other.  The 
conclusion,  therefore,  is  inevitable  that  "  the 
finite  has  an  internal  and  active  relation  to  the 
infinite."  2 

Doubtless  this  doctrine  may  be  used  to  su]> 
port  a  degrading  anthropomorphism.  When  it 
is  held  that  the  image  of  God  in  man  is  in  his 
bodily  form  and  human  limitations,  a  conception 
of  Deity  may  grow  out  of  it  that  is  anything  but 
elevating.  God,  then,  will  be  anthropomorphic 
in  a  bad  sense.  He  will  be  like  man  in  his  im- 
perfection and  finiteness.  But  it  is  not  in  this 
sense  that  man  is  like  God  or  God  like  man. 

It  is  the  spiritual  nature  of  man  that  is  like 
God;  hence  there  is  nothing  degrading  in  this 
thought.  It  is  no  degradation  of  the  Divine  idea 
to  say  that  God  is  the  infinite  pattern  of  the  hu- 
man soul.     That  soul  is  the  divinest  thing  of 

1  Republic  of  God,  p.  1. 

2  Systematic  Theology,  vol.  i.  p.  210. 


36  JESUS   THE   CHRIST. 

which  we  have  any  knowledge.  In  all  nature 
there  is  nothing  so  grand,  so  mysterious,  so  awe- 
inspiring  as  the  human  soul.  Place  it  in  any 
condition  you  please,  and  there  is  something 
about  it  that  stirs  within  us  the  thought  of  God. 
It  is  an  image  defaced  and  blackened,  if  you  will, 
but  still  an  image  of  the  Highest.  The  thought 
of  God,  therefore,  does  not  go  down,  but  up, 
when  we  claim  that  God  is  like  man  in  his  spir- 
itual nature. 

Surely  this  philosophy  of  "  the  unknowable  " 
cannot  say  that  in  this  sense  God  is  not  like 
man.  It  does  not  pretend  to  know  what  God  is  ; 
how  then  can  it  know  that  He  is  not  like  man  ? 
How  can  a  philosophy  tliat  professes  only  igno- 
rance of  God  tell  us  what  God  is  or  is  not  like  ? 
Natural  science  may  not  know  the  relation  be- 
tween God  and  man,  but  there  is  a  higher  science. 
This  relation  may  be  unknown  and  unknowable 
to  physics,  and  yet  be  known  and  knowable  to 
metaphysics.  Philosophy,  therefore,  no  more 
than  theology,  can  impeach  the  great  truth  of 
Revelation,  that  man  by  nature  is  in  the  image 
of  God. 

Let  us  then  consider  some  of  the  characteris- 
tics of  this  image  of  God  in  man.    Of  course  it 


JESUS  THE  CHRIST.  37 

will  not  be  thought  that  man  is  like  God  in  His 
infinity,  omniscience,  omnipotence,  self -existence, 
or  any  of  the  attributes  that  belong  to  Him  dis- 
tinctively as  Deity.  Man  is  finite ;  therefore  the 
image  of  God  in  man,  is  finite.  Nevertheless  it 
is  truthful ;  so  far  as  it  goes  it  gives  a  correct 
impression  of  the  reality.  A  picture  need  not 
be  as  large  as  the  original  to  be  a  faithful  like- 
ness. Human  nature  is  like  the  Divine,  not  in 
degree,  but  in  kind. 

1.  Man  is  like  God  insomuch  as  he  is  spirit 
and  not  matter.  Man  is  a  spirit.  He  has  a 
body,  but  he  is  a  spirit,  a  soul.  God  certainly  is 
a  spirit ;  therefore  the  relation  between  God  and 
man  is  a  spiritual  relation.  Man  is  the  spiritual 
child  of  God ;  and  God  is  the  Father,  not  of  all 
flesh,  but  of  "  the  spirits  of  all  flesh." 

2.  Man  is  like  God  in  that  he  is  a  conscious 
being.  Very  likely  Nature  comes  to  conscious- 
ness only  in  man.  All  below  him  is  unconscious 
life  and  unthinking  force.  All  the  ends  for  which 
Nature  works  are  known,  not  to  Nature,  but  to 
God.  It  is  man's  high  prerogative  to  know,  to 
be  conscious  of  himself,  of  the  world,  and  of 
God.  The  two  great  avenues  of  knowledge, 
thought  and  feeling,  are  open  to  him.     He  can 


38  JESUS  THE  CHRIST. 

think  and  he  can  love.  By  the  one  he  can  know 
the  world  that  God  hath  made,  by  the  other  he 
can  know  God ;  and  by  them  both  he  can  know 
himself. 

3.  Man  is  like  God  in  that  he  is  a  moral 
being.  Morality  has  its  ground  in  freedom. 
Without  this  freedom  nothing  that  we  call  mo- 
rality could  exist.  In  man  God  would  have  a 
moral  being  like  Himself,  therefore  He  gave  him 
moral  freedom  like  His  own.  Within  his  own 
sphere,  therefore,  man  is  just  as  free  as  God. 
Man  is  finite,  so  his  freedom  is  finite ;  but  it  is  a 
finite  picture  of  the  infinite  perfection.  When 
man  acts  morally,  he  acts  just  as  God  acts,  not 
from  a  force  without  but  from  a  power  within. 

4.  Man  is  like  God  insomuch  as  he  is  a  per- 
son. The  image  of  God  in  man  is  the  image  of 
a  Divine  personality.  There  is  much  hesitancy 
about  ascribing  personality  to  God.  Men  are 
willing  to  admit  that  there  is  something  — 
power,  force,  law  —  in  the  universe,  but  they  are 
unwilling  to  ascribe  personality  to  that  some- 
thing. They  seem  to  think  it  belittles  God  to 
call  Him  a  person.  An  impersonal  Deity,  they 
imagine,  is  something  greater  and  grander  than 
a  personal  Deity. 


JESUS  THE  CHRIST.  39 

To  say  nothing  of  the  impossibility  of  there 
being  anything  that  we  call  God  without  per- 
sonality, it  is  evident  that  to  ascribe  personality 
to  God  is  not  to  degrade  or  belittle  the  Divine 
idea.  Personality  is  the  loftiest  thing  of  which 
we  have  any  knowledge.  A  flash  of  intelligence 
and  freedom  outshines  the  combined  light  of  all 
the  suns  in  the  universe.  "  There  is  in  person- 
ality the  highest  that  is  within  the  knowledge  of 
man.  It  is  the  steepest,  loftiest  summit  towards 
which  we  move  in  our  attainment."  ^ 

Doubtless  there  is  a  difficulty  in  conceiving  of 
God  as  a  person,  but  this  difficulty  arises  from 
mistaking  the  true  ground  of  personality.  We 
think  of  personality  as  something  cut  off  and 
defined.  Personality  is  to  us  the  product  of 
external  limitations.  Hence  where  these  lim- 
itations are  wanting,  as  in  God,  we  cannot 
conceive  of  personality. 

But  the  truth  is  that  personality  has  not  its 
ground  in  limitations  but  in  consciousness ;  in  its 
own  intelligence,  will,  and  freedom.  I  am  a  per- 
son, not  because  I  am  finite,  but  because  I  think 
my  own  thoughts,  will  my  own  intents ;  because 
I  am  an  intelligent,  free  power,  in  and  of  my- 

1  Republic  of  God,  p.  21. 


40  JESUS  THE  CHRIST. 

self.  So  God  is  a  person  not  because  He  is 
or  is  not  infinite,  but  because  He  is  a  self- 
determining  and  self-acting  power,  because  He 
is  an  intelligent,  free  will,  the  absolute  cause 
of  His  own  volitions.  Such  is  the  personality 
of  God,  and  man  is  in  the  image  of  this  Divine 
personality. 

5.  Man  is  like  God  in  his  ideal  destiny. 
When  the  idea  of  God  in  man  is  realized  it  will 
be  realized  in  the  Divine  likeness.  "  Man's 
spiritual  powers  and  capacities  bear  the  imprint 
of  the  Divine  likeness;  still,  capacities  and 
powers  are  not  God's  actual  image,  but  merely 
its  possibility.  The  higher  import  of  the  word 
*  image '  points  to  the  future.  In  what  he  pos- 
sesses already,  he  is  created  in  the  Divine  image 
as  his  model ;  but  in  reference  to  the  chief  mat- 
ter —  his  destination  —  he  has  in  God  a  norm 
and  ideal."^  This  is  the  crowning  thought  of  all. 
Man  was  created  in  the  likeness  of  God  in  his 
capacities  and  powers,  that  he  might  become 
like  God  in  the  perfect  development  of  those 
capacities  and  powers.  He  is  in  the  image  of 
God  in  nature,  that  he  may  become  the  image  of 
God  in  character.     The  foundation  is  of  holy 

1  Systematic  Theology,  vol.  ii.  p.  77. 


JESUS  THE  CHRIST.  41 

materials  that  the   superstructure   may  be  the 
holiness  of  God. 

Something  of  the  sense  in  which  man  is  in 
the  image  of  God  by  nature,  we  now  have  before 
us.  He  is  so  in  his  spirituality,  consciousness, 
personality,  moral  freedom,  and  ideal  destiny. 
In  one  word,  human  nature  is  the  Divine  nature 
in  miniature.  In  his  spiritual  nature  man  is  a 
microcosm  of  Divinity.  His  spiritual  being  is  a 
finite  picture  of  the  infinite  Being. 

VII.  —  Human  Character. 

But  while  man  is  in  the  image  of  God  by  na- 
ture, he  is  not  in  His  image  by  character. 
Character,  we  have  seen,  is  that  which  is  devel- 
oped out  of  the  nature,  and  is  the  product  of 
the  good  or  bad  use  of  our  powers.  Certain  it 
is,  then,  that  human  character,  taken  as  a  whole 
or  in  part,  as  embracing  all  mankind  or  a  single 
individual,  is  not  in  the  likeness  of  the  Divine 
character.  The  character  of  empirical  man  is 
almost  anything  but  Divine.  It  is  full  of  divi- 
sions, separations,  antagonisms,  darkness,  and 
depravity.  Empirical  man  is  an  imperfect, 
ignorant,  sinful,  and  often  depraved  creature. 


42  JESUS   THE  CHRIST. 

Here  is  the  great  gulf  between  God  and  man ; 
it  is  not  in  man's  nature,  but  in  his  character. 
His  character  is  a  one-sided,  abnormal,  sinful, 
twisted  development  of  his  nature.  His  capaci- 
ties and  powers  are  used  for  all  purposes  except 
the  right  one,  so  his  character  has  all  kinds  of 
immoral  taints  and  tendencies. 

Still,  if  these  capacities  and  powers  were  de- 
veloped aright,  if  they  were  unfolded  in  the 
Divine  way,  if  they  were  grown  into  a  symmet- 
rical and  perfect  character,  that  character,  it  is 
clear,  would  be  Divine,  would  be  like  the  char- 
acter of  God.  Human  nature  being  in  the 
image  of  God,  if  that  nature  were  perfectly 
and  harmoniously  developed,  the  character  thus 
formed  would  also  be  in  the  image  of  God.  If 
the  idea  of  God  in  man  were  once  fully  realized, 
then  man's  character  would  be  a  perfect  develop- 
ment of  his  nature,  and  he  would  be  "  the  Son  of 
God  "  both  in  nature  and  character. 

Now  this  idea  is  not  realized.  In  empirical 
man  "the  idea  and  the  actuality  of  the  idea 
exist  apart,  the  latter  being  the  fruit  of  free 
acts  and  coming  gradually  into  existence."^  But 
if  these  two  should  once  come  together,  if  in  one 

1  Systematic  Theology,  vol.  ii.  p.  80. 


JESUS  THE  CHRIST.  48 

soul  the  ideal  should  become  the  actual,  then 
that  soul  would  be  like  God  both  in  nature  and 
character,  and  so  a  perfect  representative  of 
God. 

Suppose  a  human  soul,  created  as  it  is  in  the 
Divine  image,  should  have  a  complete  and  per- 
fect development,  harmonious  and  sinless.  "We 
must  always  admit  the  possibility  of  this.  We 
cannot  allow  that  a  sinful  development  is  nec- 
essary to  realize  the  Divine  idea  of  man.  "The 
possibility  of  a  sinless  development  of  man,  in 
absolute  harmony  w^ith  His  idea,  must  always  be 
held  fast,  and  at  the  same  time  the  possibility 
of  his  passing  through  all  the  stages  of  life 
without  fault  and  yet  being  true  man.  Evil  can 
never  be  a  part  of  man's  nature.  When  it  exists 
it  is  removable,  conquerable,  because  eternally 
excluded  from  the  idea  of  man."  ^  That  is,  man 
does  not  realize  the  Divine  idea  in  him  by  being 
a  sinner,  but  by  not  being  a  sinner. 

Suppose,  then,  in  all  ways  this  soul  has  a  sin- 
less development,  full  and  complete.  How  evi- 
dent it  is  that  he  would  be  a  perfect  "  child  of 
God "  !  He  would  be  like  God,  not  only  in 
nature  but  in  character.     He  would  be  a  finite 

1  Sjsteuiatic  Theology,  vol.  ii.  p.  74. 


44  JESUS  THE  CHRIST. 

picture  of  the  infinite  perfection.  He  would  rep- 
resent, on  a  finite  scale,  all  there  is  of  God.  He 
would  be  "  the  Son  of  God  "  by  both  nature  and 
character. 

yni.  —  The  Nature  and  Character  of 
Christ. 

From  the  doctrine  taught  concerning  human 
nature  it  is  easy  to  see  that  there  can  be  no  an- 
tithesis between  that  nature  and  the  nature  of 
God.  These  natures  are  not  opposed  to  each 
other.  There  is  no  such  great  gulf  between 
them  as  theology  has  so  long  taught.  A  true 
view  of  human  nature  effectually  bridges  this 
gulf,  or  rather  completely  fills  it  up.  Human 
nature  being  in  the  image  of  the  Divine  nature, 
they  in  no  way  antagonize  each  other,  but  are 
in  complete  and  perfect  agreement.  Their  rela- 
tion is  one  of  perfect  harmony. 

Hence  there  is  no  difficulty  in  uniting  them  in 
Christ  or  in  seeing  that  His  nature  could  not 
have  essentially  differed  from  the  nature  of 
either  God  or  man.  If  it  is  said  that  His  nature 
was  Divine,  we  answer.  Yes,  and  it  was  human 
also  ;  for  the  Divine  nature  is  like  human  na- 
ture.   If  it  is  said  that  His  nature  was  human,  we 


JESUS   THE  CHRIST.  45 

answer,  Yes,  and  it  was  Divine  also  ;  for  human 
nature  is  like  the  Divine  nature.  That  is  to  say, 
Christ's  nature  was  both  human  and  Divine, 
because  the  human  and  the  Divine  nature  are 
essentially  the  same.  In  nature  they  all  stand 
on  the  same  plane,—  all  rank  in  the  same  cate- 
gory of  being.  One  relation  is  common  to  them 
all.  They  all  belong  to  one  family  and  are 
bound  together  by  a  common  oneness,  a  one- 
ness of  nature.  In  nature,  therefore,  Christ  is 
both  "  the  Son  of  God  "  and  "  the  son  of  man." 
His  native  capacities  and  powers  are  like  the 
native  capacities  and  powers  of  both  God  and 
man.  He  is  a  conscious,  free,  spiritual  person- 
ality like  both  God  and  man. 

He  differs  from  either  only  in  degree.  That 
He  differs  from  God  in  degree  is  evident.  He  is 
a  created  being,  and  therefore  limited  in  all  His 
powers.  God  is  infinite,  He  is  finite.  His  ca- 
pacities and  powers  differ  from  those  of  God  in 
quantity,  though  not  in  quality.  He  is  not  God, 
but  "  the  Son  of  God." 

That  He  differs  from  man  in  degree  is  not  so 
clear.  That  His  capacities  and  powers  are  nat- 
urally greater  than  those  of  man  is  possible.  A 
richness  and  fulness  of  nature  may  be  claimed 


46  JESUS  THE   CHRIST. 

for  Him  that  do  not  belong  to  ordinary  man. 
But  this  is  a  point  difficult  to  determine,  for  we 
have  no  estimate  of  the  richness  and  fulness  of 
man's  nature.  The  human  soul  is  a  deep  that 
has  never  3'et  been  fathomed.  It  has  possibili- 
ties of  which  mankind  has  as  yet  no  knowledge. 
"  Our  being  is  deeper  than  we  know ;  it  under- 
grounds all  conscious  existence.  "  ^  "  When  we 
look  at  the  genesis  of  thoughts,  how  they  arise  in 
us  originally  and  independently,  whether  they  be 
the  suggestions  of  love  or  knowledge,  we  notice 
that  there  is  in  our  souls  a  mysterious  world,  not 
made  by  us,  with  a  wealth  compared  to  which  our 
actual  productions  are  poverty ;  and  although  we 
are  not  masters  of  that  wealth,  still  such  happy 
moments  show  us  what  we  should  and  could 
be."  2  Knowing  so  little,  therefore,  of  the  real 
wealth  of  our  own  souls,  it  is  hardly  wortli 
while  to  speculate  as  to  the  superior  wealth  of 
the  soul  of  Christ.  Enough  for  us  to  know  that 
His  soul  was  essentially  a  human  soul.  He 
was  emphatically  a  man,  though  not  empirical 
man.  His  nature  was  really  and  truly  human 
nature. 

1  Hedge's  Ways  of  the  Spirit,  p.  357. 

2  Systematic  Theology,  vol.  iii.  p.  357. 


JESUS  THE  CHRIST.  47 

It  is  manifest  therefore  how  Christ  was  both 
"the  Son  of  God"  and  "  the  son  of  man."  He 
was  "  the  Son  of  God "  by  nature  and  He  was 
"  the  son  of  man  "  by  nature.  His  nature  was 
both  human  and  Divine,  for  it  was  like  the  na- 
ture of  both  God  and  man,  since  their  natures 
are  like  each  other. 

The  character  of  Christ,  however,  was  not 
human  character.  It  was  not  the  character  of 
empirical  man,  not  the  character  that  experience 
shows  man  to  possess.  We  have  seen  that  the 
great  difference  between  God  and  man  is  in 
character.  Man's  character  separates  him  from 
God.  He  is  not  godlike  in  character.  So  it  is 
man's  character  that  separates  him  from  Christ, 
Not  his  nature  but  his  character  separates  em- 
pirical man  from  "  the  son  of  man." 

Man's  character  is  a  one-sided,  imperfect,  sin- 
ful development  of  his  nature.  Christ's  charac- 
ter is  an  all-sided,  perfect,  symmetrical,  sinless 
development  of  His  nature.  In  the  space  of  a 
few  years  He  developed  a  complete.  Divine  man- 
hood. He  was  so  environed  by  the  spirit  of  God 
that  in  this  short  time  He  grew  a  sinless  charac- 
ter that  was  a  perfect  development  of  His  god- 
like nature  and  so  a  perfect  moral  likeness  of 


48  JESUS  THE   CHRIST. 

the  Divine  character.  "  And  Jesus  increased  in 
wisdom  and  stature,  and  in  favor  vrith  God  and 
man."  ^  He  "  was  in  all  points  tempted  like  as 
we  are,  yet  without  sin."  ^ 

Jesus  grew ;  He  had  a  development.  His 
character  was  not  imposed  upon  Him,  but  was 
evolved  from  within  Him.  Like  all  human  char- 
acter, it  was  a  growth.  "  In  the  cognitive  and 
volitional  aspect  He  remains  in  a  process  of  de- 
velopment even  up  to  His  death."  But  it  was 
a  sinless  growth;  He  never  grew  wrong;  His 
development  was  without  transgression.  He 
was  so  guarded,  guided,  and  helped,  that  His  na- 
ture unfolded  without  sin  into  a  complete  and 
perfect  character.  In  His  life  there  were  no  an- 
tagonisms or  contradictions.  His  character  did 
not  belie  His  nature,  but  was  a  legitimate  and 
symmetrical  development  of  His  nature. 

Hence  His  character  separated  Him  from 
man.  While  like  man  in  nature.  His  perfect  sin- 
less development  lifted  Him  above  man  in  char- 
acter, —  that  is,  above  empirical  man,  —  and 
constituted  Him  a  unique  being.  He  was  a 
moral  miracle.  His  special  and  unique  develop- 
ment  put   Him  outside  and  in  advance  of  the 

1  Luke  ii.  62.  2  Hebrews  iv.  15. 


JESUS  THE   CHRIST.  49 

ordinary  process  of  human  unfolding  and  be- 
yond the  range  of  ordinary  human  character, 
and  constituted  Him  "  the  miraculous  Child." 

But  while  His  character  separated  Him  from 
man,  it  united  Him  to  God.  Having  a  Divine  na- 
ture, divinely  unfolded,  He  became  a  Child  of  God 
after  a  "  unique  fashion."  He  became  His  child 
both  in  nature-  and  character.  He  was  like  God 
not  only  in  nature  but  in  life  and  character,  and 
so  between  them  there  was  complete  harmony, 
perfect  ''  oneness."  He  thought  the  thoughts 
of  God,  loved  the  things  of  God,  willed  the  pur- 
poses, of  Gody  spoke  the  words  and  did  the  works 
of  God.  So  He  is  the  representative  of  God. 
He  is  the  "  Emmanuel,"  "  God  with  us,"  God  on 
a  finite  scale.  He  holds  the  perfections  of  the 
Infinite  within  the  limits  of  finite  possibility. 

At  the  same  time  He  is  the  realization  of  the 
Divine  idea  of  man.  The  ideal  became  actual  in 
Him.  God's  idea  of  man  came  to  realization 
first  in  Jesus  the  Christ.  He  first  realized 
among  men  the  idea  of  man  which  God  had 
in  the  beginning.  In  Him  the  Divine-human 
image  was  realized  in  its  ideal  perfection. 
Hence  He  was  at  the  same  time  the  represen- 
tative of  God  and  the  example  and  destiny  of 


50  JESUS   THE  CHRIST. 

man.  He  reveals  in  Himself  God,  Duty,  Destiny, 
He  shows  us  what  God  is,  what  man  ou(/Jit  to 
be,  and  what  man  is  to  be. 

So  we  understand  the  relation  which  Christ 
sustains  to  both  God  and  man.  He  is  "  the  Son 
of  man  "  by  nature.  He  is  like  man  in  nature, 
and  will  be  like  man  both  in  nature  and  charac- 
ter when  man  shall  have  realized  his  destiny. 
But  He  is  "the  Son  of  God"  both  by  nature 
and  character.  His  Divine  sonship  is  twofold, 
while  His  human  sonship  is  only  onefold.  He 
is  like  God  both  in  nature  and  character,  but  He 
is  like  man  as  yet  only  in  nature.  Blessed  be  the 
day  when  man  shall  be  like  Him  in  character ! 

IX.  —  Christ  the  Word  of  God. 

Turning  to  the  New  Testament  for  confirma- 
tion of  these  views,  let  us  first  consider  the  doc- 
trine of  "the  Logos,"  "the  Word."  This 
doctrine  is  peculiar  to  John.  No  writer  except 
John  calls  Christ  distinctively  "the  Word." 
Other  writers  call  the  gospel  or  the  teachings 
of  Christ  "  the  Word  of  God,"  but  only  John 
applies  this  term  directly  to  the  Saviour.  This 
he  does  in  a  special  manner  in  the  introduction 


JESUS  THE   CimiST,  51 

of  his  Gospel,  where  he  seems  to  teach  a  some- 
what peculiar  doctrine  concerning  Christ.  Let 
us  see  if  we  can  unfold  it. 

We  have  explained  that  the  term  "  Word " 
denotes  the  outward  form  of  the  inward  thought, 
and  sometimes  it  is  used  to  cover  both  the  in- 
ward thought  and  outward  expression,  and  that 
this  is  the  real  meaning  of  the  original  "  Logos." 
That  is,  it  may  be  both  subjective  and  objective  ; 
may  be  a  spoken  and  unspoken  word.  In  both 
of  these  senses  John  uses  it,  we  apprehend,  in 
the  prologue  of  his  Gospel.  He  first  uses  it  in  a 
subjective  sense. 

"  In  the  beginning  was  the  Word,  and  the 
Word  was  with  God,  and  the  Word  was  God." 
Here  the  term  signifies  the  unsiooken  word  of 
God,  that  is.  His  thought,  plan,  purpose,  or 
"  world-idea."  It  denotes  the  subjective  word, 
the  creative  thought  or  idea,  in  the  mind  of  God. 
This  word,  this  creative  thought,  was  in  "the 
beginning,"  —  before  all  else,  before  the  creative 
word  was  spoken.  "  The  Word  was  with  God." 
It  belonged  to  Him  and  not  to  any  inferior  being. 
It  was  His  thought  or  idea,  and  not  that  of 
another. 

"  And   the  Word  was   God."     This   creative 


52  JESUS   THE  CHRIST. 

word  or  idea  was  not  as  yet  separated  from  God, 
but  was  so  much  of  Him  and  in  Him,  that,  fig- 
uratively speaking,  it  may  be  called  God,  as  a 
man's  thoughts  may  be  called  the  man.  Or  we 
may  understand  the  neuter  verb  here  as  we  do 
in  the  expression,  ^'  This  is  my  body."  That  is, 
this  represents  or  is  like  my  body.  So  "  the 
Word  "  represents  or  is  like  God.  The  creative 
thought  or  -idea  that  possessed  the  mind  of  God 
was  pre-eminently  a  Godlike  idea.  It  was  an 
idea  not  like  that  of  man  or  any  inferior  being,, 
but  like  God.  Thus  far  the  term  ''  Word  "  is 
used  in  a  subjective  sense,  to  denote  the  creative 
idea  in  the  mind  of  God. 

But  now  John  proceeds  to  show  the  objecti- 
fication  of  this  word,  to  unfold  the  process 
whereby  this  creative  idea  in  the  mind  of  God 
realized  itself.  "  All  things  were  made  by  it,^ 
and  without  it  was  not  anything  made  that  was 
made."  2  The  first  step  in  the  objectifying  or 
uttering   of  the   Divine   creative   idea  or  word 

1  The  Greek  does  not  demand  that  the  term  "  Word " 
should  be  followed  in  English  by  the  masculine  pronoun.  It 
is  just  as  correct  to  translate  "  it  "  as  "  Him,"  and  more  con- 
sistent with  the  thought. 

2  The  second  verse  is  a  repetition  and  adds  nothing  to  the 
thought. 


JESUS  THE  CHRIST.  53 

was  in  creation.  All  things  were  made  by  or 
in  accordance  with  this  creative  idea  or  plan. 
Hence  "  the  invisible  things  of  Him  from  the 
creation  of  the  world  are  clearly  seen,  being 
understood  by  the  things  that  are  made,  even 
His  eternal  power  and  Godhead."  ^  God  so  ut- 
tered His  word,  His  creative  thought,  in  external 
Nature  that  God  may  be  known  by  His  works. 

For  in  this  objectified  word,  in  this  Divine 
idea  in  creation,  "is  Life,  and  the  life  is  the  Light 
of  men."  In  this  creative  idea,  realizing  itself 
in  the  natural  world,  there  is  the  life,  the  very 
energy  of  God ;  and  in  this  life  there  is  light  for 
men,  if  they  have  eyes  to  see  it.  "  But  the  light 
shineth  in  darkness,  and  the  darkness  compre- 
hendeth  it  not."  The  darkened  or  undeveloped 
mind  of  man  did  not  see  the  Divine  light  in 
Nature  ;  or  perhaps  John  refers  to  a  time  when 
there  was  no  created  being  to  observe  this  light, 
man  not  yet  having  come  into  existence.  In 
the  next  place  John  proceeds  to  state  how  this 
creative  word  or  idea  was  objectified  or  real- 
ized  in   human  nature.^     "That  was   the  true 

1  Romans  i.  20. 

2  We  omit  what  is  said  about  John  the  Baptist,  as  having 
no  necessary  connection  with  the  line  of  thought. 


54  JESUS   THE  CHRIST. 

liglit  that  lighteth  every  man  that  cometh  into 
the  world."  That  i&,  "  the  universal  human 
reason,"  the  objectifying  of  the  creative  idea  in 
the  human  soul,  the  creating  of  man  in  the  image 
of  God,  was  the  light  of  every  soul  that  cometh 
into  the  world.  This  Divine  life  in  the  human 
soul  is  the  light  of  that  soul.  By  this  light 
every  soul  may  see  itself,  see  the  external  world, 
and  see  God.  But  this  human  world  did  not  see 
the  light  of  God  in  its  own  nature.  "  It  was  in 
this  world,  and  this  world  was  made  by  it,  and 
yet  this  world  did  not  know  it."  Even  though 
God  had  objectified  His  thought  not  only  in 
Nature,  but  in  the  human  soul,  —  had  created 
man  in  His  own  image,  —  yet  man  did  not  know 
it,  did  not  see  God  even  in  his  own  soul. 

The  next  step,  therefore,  is  revelation.  Men 
not  seeing  God  with  any  clearness  in  Nature 
or  the  human  soul,  John  unfolds  the  process 
whereby  God  objectifies  His  word  in  human  his- 
tory. He  takes  a  segment  of  that  history  and 
specially  guides  and  directs  it.  He  providen- 
tially calls  men  and  inspires  them  to  speak  His 
word,  utter  His  thought  to  mankind.  His  word 
came  to  men,  but  they  only  partly  received  it. 
''  It  came  to  His  own,  but  His  own  received  it 


JESUS  THE   CHRIST.  55 

not."  As  a  whole  His  chosen  people  did  not  re- 
ceive or  understand  His  word.  Some,  however, 
did.  Some  received  His  word,  and  those  that  did, 
"  to  them  it  gave  power  to  become  the  sons  of 
God,"  —  "  he  called  them  gods  unto  whom  the 
word  of  God  came,"  ^  —  and  they  were  born,  not 
of  "  flesh  and  blood,"  but  of  the  very  will  or 
spirit  of  God. 

Xow  comes  the  final  step :  "  The  Word  was 
made  flesh  and  dwelt  among  us,  and  we  beheld 
His  glory,  the  glory  as  of  the  only  begotten  of 
the  Father."  This  is  the  first  direct  reference 
to  Christ  in  this  introduction.  Up  to  this  point 
John  has  been  sketching  the  other  ways  in 
which  God  had  realized  His  great  creative  idea,  — 
in  Nature,  in  the  human  soul,  and  in  the  provi- 
dential history  of  man,  —  but  now  he  comes  to 
the  great  matter,  to  the  incarnation  of  that 
idea,  to  its  realization  in  actual  human  life  and 
character.  "  The  Word  was  made  flesh."  This 
Divine  creative  idea  became  a  man,  —  not  em- 
pirical man  but  ideal  man,  a  perfect  realization 
of  God's  idea  of  man.  The  thought  of  man  in 
the  mind  of  God,  and  toward  the  realization  of 
which  He  had  been  moving  through  all  the  ages, 

1  John  X.  35. 


66  JESUS  THE   CHRIST. 

\ras  fully  realized  in  the  man  Christ  Jesus. 
"  The  objectifying  work  of  God  reached  its  goal 
in  Him,  so  that  Christ  was  His  absolute,  objecti- 
fied image."  This  John  affirms,  for  he  tells  us 
that  "  they  beheld  His  glory,  the  glory  as  of  the 
only  begotten,"  or  dearly  beloved,  "  of  the  Fa- 
ther, full  of  grace  and  truth."  His  glory  was  as 
great  as  though  he  were  "  the  only  begotten  of 
the  Father;"  as  though  God  had  never  in  any 
other  way  objectified  His  word.  He  was  the 
complete  realization  of  the  idea  that  had  moved 
the  heart  and  hand  of  God  from  "the  begin- 
ning." Toward  that  goal  He  had  been  working, 
and  in  that  goal  was  seen  the  full  glory  of  His 
great  creative  thought.  "  He  was  full  'of  grace 
and  truth."  Others  had  realized  some  of  God's 
grace  and  truth,  but  in  Him  that  grace  and  truth 
were  fully  realized,  "  for  in  Him  dwelleth  all 
the  fulness  of  the  Godhead  bodily."  ^ 

Thus  have  we  tried  to  set  forth  the  doctrine 
taught  in  this  introduction  to  the  Gospel  of  John. 
While  the  object  of  this  introduction  is  to  guard 
the  Church  from  Gnostic  heresies,  its  form  is 
suggested  by  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis.  John 
has  this  chapter  in  mind,  and  frames  his  intro- 

1  Colossians  ii.  9. 


JESUS  THE   CHRIST.  57 

duction  after  it  as  a  model.  He  outlines  the 
process  of  the  objectification  or  realization  of 
the  Divine  Word  or  the  Divine  "world-idea" 
until  it  culminates ;  until  it  is  fully  realized  in 
Jesus  Christ. 

Put  for  "  Word  "  "  the  Divine  world-idea,"  and 
follow  the  thought  of  John  until  it  reaches  "  the 
Word  made  flesh,"  and  the  doctrine  he  teaches 
becomes  clear.  At  first  this  "  world-idea  "  is  in 
the  mind  of  God,  then  it  comes  forth  in  the 
material  creation,  then  in  the  human  soul,  then 
in  the  providential  history  of  man,  and  finally 
in  the  perfected  life  and  character  of  Jesus  the 
Christ.  God's  idea  of  the  world,  of  man  and 
his  environment,  is  fully  made  known  in  Christ 
as  the  type  of  perfected  humanity.  What  God 
has  been  thinking  of  from  the  beginning,  and 
what  He  will  be  thinking  of  until  the  end,  is 
revealed  in  Him. 

Hence  He  is  the  resolving  light  of  all  history. 
He  is  the  centre  figure  of  the  world  ;  He  is 
that  toward  which  all  history  points.  He  inter- 
prets all  that  has  gone  before  and  all  that  shall 
come  after.  For  in  Him  God  reveals  the  sublime 
truth,  that  the  goal  of  the  universe,  the  end  for 
which  all  things  exist,  is  to  realize  in  every  soul 


58  JESUS  THE  CHRIST. 

the  Divine  idea,  even  as  it  was  realized  in  Christ ; 
to  bring  all  into  an  oneness  with  God,  even  as 
He  was  at  one  with  Him. 

The  doctrine  of  John  therefore  is  in  perfect 
keeping  with  that  we  are  teaching.  Christ  is 
the  objectified  Word  of  God,  His  Word  become 
man,  embodied  in  a  perfect  human  life ;  and  so 
Christ  is  the  Representative  of  God.  For  "as 
our  Word,  being  the  utterance,  is  therewith  the 
child  (as  it  were)  of  our  spirit,  so  the  Word  of 
God,  being  what  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews 
calls  '  the  express  image  of  His  person '  is  there- 
with the  Son  of  God."  i 


X.  —  Christ  the  Image  op  God. 

As  we  have  said,  no  writer  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment except  John  calls  Christ  "  the  Word  of 
God."  Other  writers  use  the  term  "  image." 
This  seems  to  be  a  favorite  term  with  Paul. 
Paul  never  applies  the  term  "•  Word  "  to  Christ. 
He  never  calls  Jesus  "  the  Logos,"  but  he  calls 
Him  "  the  Ikon,"  the  image  of  God.  His  thought, 
however,  is  the  same.  John  uses  a  term  which 
addresses  the  ear ;  Paul,  one  that  speaks  to  the 

1  Gospel  of  the  Divine  Life,  p.  12. 


JESUS  THE  CHEIST.  69 

eye.  As  Dorner  says  :  "  The  word  '  Logos '  is 
absent  in  Paul;  he  uses  'Ikon'  (image).  But 
what  a  word  is  to  the  ear,  namely,  a  revelation 
of  what  is  within,  an  '  Ikon '  is  to  the  eye ;  and 
thus  in  the  expressions  there  is  only  a  transla- 
tion, as  it  were,  of  the  same  fact  from  one  sense 
to  another."  That  is,  what  John  means  by  ''the 
Word,"  Paul  means  by  "  the  image."  A  word 
is  a  sound  picture  addressed  to  the  ear ;  an  im- 
age is  a  light  picture  addressed  to  the  eye.  They 
signify  therefore  the  same  thing,  that  is,  the  rep- 
resentation of  the  thought  or  idea  for  which  they 
stand. 

Hence  when  Paul  calls  Christ  "  the  image  of 
God,"  ^  or  "  the  image  of  the  invisible  God,"  ^  he 
means  precisely  what  John  does  when  he  calls 
Him  "  the  Word  of  God."  He  means  that  Christ 
was  the  positive,  objectified  likeness  of  God,  His 
perfect  representative  among  men.  He  does  not 
mean  that  Christ  was  God,  —  for  the  image  of 
anything  cannot  be  the  thing  itself,  —  but  he 
means  tliat  He  was  a  perfect  picture  of  God, 
representing  in  an  actual  human  life  and  char- 
acter the  thoughts,  feelings,  and  purposes  of  God. 
Paul  seems  to  take  his  figure  from  God's  cre- 

^  2  Curinthiaus  iv.  4.  2  Colossians  i.  15. 


60  JESUS  THE  CHRIST. 

ating  man  in  His  own  image,  while  John  goes 
farther  back  and  takes  His  from  God's  creating 
the  world  by  His  word.  As  God  created  man  in 
His  own  image  by  nature,  so  Paul  assures  us  that 
Christ  was  in  all  respects  the  very  image  of  His 
Father. 

The  author  of  Hebrews  (who  probably  was  not 
Paul)  expresses  the  same  idea  in  a  still  differ- 
ent term :  he  calls  Christ ''  The  brightness  of  " 
God's  "  glory  and  the  express  image  of  His  per- 
son ; "  ^  or  as  the  New  Version  translates  :  "  The 
effulgence  of  His  glory  and  the  very  image  of  His 
substance."  Here  Christ  is  called  "  the  image  of 
God  ; "  but  the  word  is  not  "  Ikon,"  but  "  Kar- 
akter,"  a  much  stronger  and  more  expressive 
word.  It  is  the  word  from  which  we  derive  the 
term  "  character."  It  means  "  an  engraved  im- 
age," one  wrought  into  or  cut  out  of,  as  sculp- 
ture in  marble.  Hence  Christ  is  the  engraved, 
developed,  sculptured  image  of  God.  His  char- 
acter is  in  the  very  image  of  the  Divine  charac- 
ter. His  glory  is  a  reflection  of  the  infinite 
glory,  and  His  character  is  the  very  likeness,  — 
cut,  as  it  were,  with  an  engraver's  chisel,  —  of 
^he  real  soul  and  substance  of  God,  —  that  is, 

1  Hebrews  i.  3. 


JESUS  THE  CHRIST.  61 

the  very  heart  of  the  Infinite  is  revealed  in 
Jesus  Christ.  Here  again  is  a  very  strong  con- 
firmation of  the  doctrine  we  are  unfolding  :  that 
Christ  is  not  God,  but  the  true  Son  of  God,  the 
living  representative,  the  exact  likeness,  of  the 
Most  High. 

XT.  —  Christ  the  Eternal  Life. 

Another  title  is  given  to  Christ,  especially  by 
John,  that  adds  something  perhaps  to  the  view 
already  presented.  He  is  called  "  the  Life  "  and 
"  the  eternal  Life."  "  I  am  the  way,  the  truth, 
and  the  life."  ^  "  The  Father  hath  life  in  Him- 
self, so  hath  He  given  to  His  Son  to  have  life  in 
Himself."  ^  '^  God  hath  given  to  us  eternal  life  ; 
and  this  life  is  in  His  Son."^  "According  to 
the  promise  of  life  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus."  * 
"  He  that  hath  the  Son,  hath  life ;  he  that  hath 
not  the  Son,  hath  not  life."  ^  In  these  passages 
Christ  is  called  the  Life,  even  the  Life  eternal. 
The  meaning  is  that  He  is  the  spiritual  life,  the 
life  of  the  eternal  Spirit.  The  spirit,  the  soul  of 
Christ,  was  alive  with  the  life  of  God. 

1  John  xiv.  6.  '^  Ibid.  v.  26.  3  i  John  v.  11. 

4  2  Timothy  i.  1.      ^  i  John  v.  12. 


62  JESUS  THE  CHRIST. 

The  word  of  God  in  Him  was  a  word  of  Power. 
The  image  of  God  in  Him  was  a  living  image. 
It  was  no  lifeless  picture,  no  painting  on  canvas, 
no  likeness  in  marble,  but  a  living  picture,  an 
image  in  a  real  human  soul,  a  likeness  of 
spirit  to  spirit.  The  life  of  Christ  was  in  har- 
mony with  the  life  of  God.  His  heart  beat  in 
unison  with  the  great  Heart  of  the  universe. 
His  inward,  spiritual  activities  were  so  charged 
with  the  spirit  of  God  that  they  acted  harmoni- 
ously among  themselves  and  with  the  activities 
of  God.  He  never  willed  in  opposition  to  the 
Divine  will ;  "  it  was  His  meat  and  drink  to  do 
that  will,"i  and  so  His  spiritual  life  was  con- 
stantly fed  and  sustained  with  the  life  of  God. 

Hence  His  power  to  impart  life  ;  having  life 
in  Himself  He  can  give  life.  Knowledge  of  Him 
and  communion  with  Him  impart  life  to  all  who 
thus  come  to  Him.  "  And  this  is  life  eternal,  that 
they  might  know  Thee  the  only  true  God,  and 
Jesus  Christ,  whom  Thou  hast  sent."  ^  In  this 
knowledge  of  God  in  Christ  there  is  life-giving 
power.  It  is  not  only  light ;  it  is  heat,  it  is  inspi- 
ration, inward  creative  energy.  In  Christ,  there- 
fore,  as   the   objectified   word,   as   the   express 

1  John  iv.  34.  2  John  xvii.  3. 


JESUS   THE   CHRIST.  63 

image,  we  not  only  see  God,  but  we  feel  Him. 
Our  spiritual  eye  not  only  beholds  a  Divine  like- 
ness, but  our  spiritual  being  feels  the  influx  of  a 
quickening,  life-giving  energy,  and  so  He  be- 
comes to  us  both  "  the  power  of  God  and  the 
wisdom  of  God."  ^ 

From  all  this,  then,  the  doctrine  of  the  New 
Testament  becomes  evident.  It  is  that  Christ  is 
not  God,  but  the  spoken  word,  "  the  express  im- 
age," the  living  representative,  of  God.  His  na- 
ture, which  was  both  human  and  Divine,  like  both 
the  nature  of  God  and  of  man,  for  they  are  like 
each  other,  was  so  developed  and  perfected  that 
He  became  the  realization  of  God's  idea  of  man, 
and.  hence  a  true  and  perfect  man  and  therefore 
a  true  and  perfect  child  or  Son  of  God,  His 
"  absolute  objectified  image  ;  "  and  so  revealing  in 
His  own  person,  in  His  own  life  and  character, 
what  God  is,  what  man  ought  to  be,  and  what 
man  is  to  be  :  God,  Duty,  Destiny. 

This  view  reconciles  the  apparently  contradic- 
tory statements  of  Scripture.  "No  man  hath 
seen  God  at  any  time ;  the  only  begotten  Son, 
which  is  in  the  bosom  of  the  Father,  He  hath 
declared  Him."  2    "  He  that  hath  seen  Me  hath 

1  1  Corinthians  i.  24.  2  john  i.  18. 


6-4  JESUS  THE  CHRIST. 

seen  the  Father."  ^  No  man  hath  seen  God  in 
person ;  but  all  who  see  the  Son  see  the  Father, 
because  the  Son  is  the  absolute  image  of  the 
Father,  —  His  perfect  representative.  We  see  the 
Father  in  the  Son,  —  not  in  person,  but  in  spirit 
and  life. 

This  view  explains  also  how  Christ  is  one  with 
God.  "  I  am  in  the  Father,  and  the  Father  in 
Me."  2  "  That  they  all  may  be  one,  as  Thou, Father, 
art  in  Me  and  I  in  Thee,  that  they  all  may  be  one 
in  us."  3  "  I  and  My  Father  are  one."  *  The 
doctrine  we  are  teaching  gives  a  very  clear  ap- 
prehension of  these  Scriptures.  Christ  being  the 
moral  likeness,  the  perfect  representative,  of  God, 
He  is  one  with  Him  in  spirit,  purpose,  and  life. 
That  the  oneness  is  spiritual  and  not  personal  is 
evident ;  for  the  Saviour  prays  that  His  disciples 
may  share  in  the  same  oneness  — "  that  they 
may  be  one  even  as  we  are  one,"  ^  —  which  could 
not  be  if  the  oneness  were  that  of  personality. 
If  Christ  and  God  were  absolutely  one  person, 
then  the  disciples  could  not  possibly  partake  of 
the  same  oneness.  But  Christ  being  the  image 
of  God,  His  glorified  Son,  is  at  one  with  Him  in 

1  John  xiv.  10.  2  ibid.  3  ibid.  xvii.  21. 

4  Ibid.  X.  30.  5  Ibid.  xvii.  22. 


JESUS  THE   CHRIST.  65 

spirit  and  purpose,  in  thought,  feeling,  and  life ; 
and  of  this  oneness  the  disciples  might  partake, 
and  it  was  of  vast  importance  that  they  should 
partake.  Hence  the  earnestness  of  the  Saviour's 
prayer:  ''That  they  all  may  be  one,  as  Thou, 
Father,  art  in  Me  and  I  in  Thee,  that  they  all 
may  be  one  in  us." 

But,  still  further,  in  the  light  of  this  truth 
that  Christ  is  the  perfect  moral  likeness  of  God 
and  so  His  representative,  that  noted  passage  in 
Philippians  becomes  plain  :  "  Have  this  mind  in 
you  which  was  also  in  Christ  Jesus  :  who,  being 
in  the  form  of  God,  counted  it  not  a  prize  to  be 
on  an  equality  with  God,  but  emptied  Himself, 
taking  the  form  of  a  servant,  being  made  in  the 
likeness  of  men ;  and  being  found  in  fashion  as  a 
man.  He  humbled  Himself,  becoming  obedient 
even  unto  death,  yea,  the  death  of  the  cross. 
Wherefore  also  God  highly  exalted  Him,  and 
gave  Him  a  name  which  is  above  every  name, 
that  at  the  name  of  Jesus  every  knee  should 
bow,  of  things  in  heaven  and  things  on  earth 
and  things  under  the  earth,  and  that  every 
tongue  should  confess  that  Jesus  Christ  is  Lord, 
to  the  glory  of  God  the  Father."^ 

1  Philippians  ii.  5-11  (New  Version). 
5 


6C)  JESUS  THE  CHRIST. 

Here  Paul  teaches  his  favorite  doctrine  that 
Christ  is  the  image  of  God  :  "  Who  being  in  the 
form  of  God,"  that  is,  in  His  potential  likeness ; 
in  His  likeness  though  not  yet  realized.  This 
is  the  first  thing  stated  in  this  passage,  that 
Christ  is  in  the  form  or  image  of  God.  But  be- 
ing in  the  form  or  image  of  God,  He  does  not  at 
once  and  off-hand  grasp  as  a  prize,  or  "  eagerly 
seize,"  that  equality  or  likeness  ^  to  God  which 
belongs  to  Him ;  but  He  first  takes  on  Himself 
the  "  form  of  a  servant "  and  "  becomes  obedi- 
ent unto  death,  even  the  death  of  the  cross." 
"  Wherefore,"  because  He  thus  humbles  Him- 
self, God  exalts  Him  and  gives  Him  "  a  name 
that  is  above  every  name,"  that  all  should  at 
last  confess  that  name  "  to  the  glory  of  God  the 
Father." 

That  is,  Christ  attains  His  exaltation  through 
humiliation;  "He  is  perfected  through  suffer- 
ing." ^  He  does  not  at  the  outset  realize  His 
perfect  spiritual  equality  or  likeness  to  God ; 
but  He  attains  to  this  realization  gradually  and 
through  much  service,  trial,  and  suffering.  Paul 
teaches  the  same  doctrine    here   as  elsewhere, 

1  "  Isos  "  may  properly  be  translated  "  like." 

2  Hebrews  ii.  10. 


JESUS   THE   CHRIST.  6i 

—  that  Christ  is  the  image  of  God ;  but  he  also 
unfolds  the  process  through  which  that  image  is 
realized.  It  was  realized,  developed,  made  mani- 
fest and  potent  through  a  process  of  painful 
experience,  such  as  belongs  to  the  common  lot 
of  man.  Through  the  human  sphere  of  toil  and 
service  and  suffering  Christ  realized  His  own 
likeness  to  the  Father. 

XII.  —  Christ  the  Revelation  of  God. 

From  these  teachings  we  pass  readily  to  an 
apprehension  of  Christ  as  the  revelation  of  God. 
Being  a  sound  and  light  picture  of  God,  the 
actual,  living  Word  or  image  of  God,  the  mani- 
festation of  the  Divine  Life,  we  hear  and  see  and 
feel  the  Father  in  the  Son.  Through  Him  the 
Father  addresses  and  comes  into  communion 
with  all  our  spiritual  senses,  —  eye,  ear,  and 
hand.  In  Him  we  see  the  character  of  God, 
hear  the  voice  of  God,  and  feel  the  love  of 
God. 

We  must  remember  that  Christianity  was 
first  of  all  a  Life.  It  was  not  a  science,  not  a 
philosophy,  not  a  cultus :  it  was  a  Life,  it  was 
Jesus  Christ  living  among  men.     His  life  was 


6S  JESUS  THE  CHRIST. 

and  is  the  gospel.  He  taught  truth,  but  only 
the  truth  that  was  in  Him.  He  taught  noth- 
ing foreign  to  Himself  ;  He  simply  uttered 
what  was  in  His  own  soul,  spoke  the  living 
Word  which  He  was.  His  teachings  were  but 
the  outflow  of  His  life.  He  taught  as  He  lived, 
spontaneously,  from  His  inward  consciousness  of 
God. 

Hence  all  He  said,  all  He  did,  and  all  He  suf- 
fered have  profound  significance,  are  of  priceless 
value.  They  stand  for  the  hidden  glory  of  the 
Eternal.  They  reveal  the  inwardness  of  the 
Almighty.  They  lay  open  the  heart  of  the  Uni- 
verse. They  make  known  the  nature  of  that 
Power  "  in  which  we  live  and  move  and  have 
our  being."  Christ  was  a  revelation  of  God. 
Tiiere  are  other  revelations.  God  reveals  Him- 
self in  Nature,  in  the  human  soul,  and  in  the 
providential  history  of  man.  Christ  is  not  unique 
in  that  He  reveals  God,  for  in  some  way  all 
things  reveal  Him;  but  He  is  unique  in  the 
way  in  which  He  reveals  Him.  Christ  reveals 
God  in  Himself,  in  His  own  life.  The  peculiar- 
ity of  Christianity  is,  that  it  is  a  revelation  of 
God  in  a  person,  in  an  actual  life  and  character. 
Christ  lived  the  Divine  thought  and  will,  and  so 


JESUS   THE  CHRIST.  69 

realized  that  thought  and  will  in  the  world, 
among  men.  He  lived  the  Spirit  that  created 
and  animates  the  universe,  and  so  is  an  absolute 
manifestation  of  that  Spirit. 

Therefore  the  measureless  significance  of  His 
life.  It  stands  for  the  great  reality,  the  ever- 
lasting heart  and  core  of  things.  When  we  look 
at  Christ,  behold  His  life,  we  see  the  Spirit  that 
rules  and  fills  and  sways  the  universe.  The 
heart  of  creation  is  seen  in  His  life.  Nature 
shows  us  the  garments  of  the  Almighty,  the 
material  symbols  in  which  He  hides  His  power ; 
but  Christ  reveals  the  Almighty,  the  absolute 
Beauty  and  the  absolute  Good.  Everything  in 
the  life  of  Christ,  therefore,  has  a  Divine  sig- 
nificance. It  points  to  a  glory  that  lies  behind. 
It  indicates  a  goodness  and  a  power  that  has 
no  limits.  It  photographs  the  perfection  of  the 
Infinite.  His  thoughts  are  the  thoughts  of  God. 
His  words  are  the  words  of  the  voiceless  Spjirit. 
His  will  is  the  will  of  the  Absolute.  His  teach- 
ings are  the  teachings  of  Him  "  who  is  through 
all,  above  all,  and  in  us  all." 

His  miracles  have  something  more  than  an 
evidential  power ;  they  have  a  spiritual  meaning. 
They  are  a  "  transactional "  revelation,  a  revela- 


70  JESUS   THE  CHRIST. 

tion  in  deed.  In  them  Christ  acted  out  the  Spirit 
that  animates  the  universe.  They  manifest  the 
all-healing,  elevating,  and  redeeming  love  of 
God.  The  saving  grace  of  the  Most  High  is 
displayed  in  His  marvellous  works.  He  not  only 
taught  the  love  of  God,  He  showed  that  love 
in  His  deeds,  He  acted  it  out  in  healing  the  sick 
and  raising  the  dead,  in  causing  the  blind  to  see, 
the  deaf  to  hear,  the  lame  to  walk,  and  the  dead 
to  live. 

His  sufferings  and  death  are  also  a  revelation. 
They  show  us  the  self-sacrificing  element  in  the 
Divine  love.  They  reveal  to  us  the  nature  of 
that  love,  —  that  it  is  a  love  that  dies  to  save ; 
that  finds  its  own  life  in  doing  and  giving,  in 
sacrificing  for  the  life  of  others,  in  going  out 
of  itself  to  create  and  save  and  bless.  "  But 
God  commendeth  His  love  toward  us  in  that 
while  we  were  yet  sinners  Christ  died  for  us."  ^ 
Christ's  death  was  a  revelation  or  manifestation 
of  the  love  of  God  to  a  sinful  world.  His  death, 
therefore,  was  something  more  than  that  of  a 
martyr.  He  did  not  die  merely  as  a  martyr  to 
the  truth.  He  did  die  as  a  martyr.  In  His 
death  He  bore  witness  to  the  truth,  "  for  He  was 

1  Romans  v.  8. 


JESUS  THE  CHRIST.  71 

obedient  unto  death,  even  the  death  of  the 
cross ; "  but  this  does  not  exhaust  the  meaning 
of  His  death.  His  death  means  more  than  this ; 
He  died  as  a  representative  of  God.  His  death 
was  an  object  lesson,  drawn  by  the  hand  of  the 
Infinite  Love.  The  loving  heart  of  the  Infinite 
was  revealed  in  His  death.  In  that  agony  in  the 
garden  and  in  that  tragedy  on  Calvary,  we  see 
something  of  the  depth  and  power  of  the  Father's 
love  for  His  children.  We  see  how  that  love 
gives  and  sacrifices  for  the  beings  loved.  His 
death,  therefore,  was  not  only  the  death  of  a 
martyr,  but  it  was  also  a  conscious  yielding  up 
of  life,  that  the  wondrous  love  of  God  might  be 
manifested  to  a  sinful  world,  to  the  end  that  that 
world  might  be  saved. 

His  resurrection  is  also  a  revelation.  Like 
everything  else,  it  has  two  sides  to  it,  an  out- 
ward and  an  inward,  and  the  outward  is  a 
revelation  of  the  inward.  It  not  only  revealed 
the  continuous  life  of  the  Spirit,  but  also  the 
indwelling  life  of  God,  that  is  raising  man  to  a 
higher  and  still  higher  life.  So  Christ  in  all  He 
was,  did,  and  suffered  is  a  revelation  of  God. 
The  whole  gospel  is  in  His  life.  In  Him  Chris- 
tianity existed  actually  and  therefore  potentially. 


72  JESUS  THE  CHRIST. 

The  gospel  in  the  world  to-day  was  first  in 
Christ,  and  out  of  Him  it  has  been  developed. 
Thus  Christ,  being  the  representative  of  God, 
His  "  absolute  objectified  image,"  is  a  revelation 
of  God  in  such  a  way  that  in  seeing  the  Son  we 
see  the  very  heart  of  the  Father,  His  inward 
spirit,  life,  and  glory. 

Xni.  —  Christ  the  Example  and  Destiny  of 
Man. 

But  Christ  is  not  only  the  revelation  of  God. 
He  is  also  the  example  of  man,  and  therefore  a 
type  of  what  man  ought  to  be  and  is  to  be. 
That  Christ  is  our  example,  the  Scriptures 
clearly  teach.  The  Saviour's  constant  exhorta- 
tion is,  "  Follow  Me,"  and  the  teaching  of  the 
Apostles,  "  Seek  to  be  '  conformed  unto  His 
image,'  ^  to  attain  unto  a  perfect  man,  '  unto  the 
measure  of  the  stature  of  the  fulness  of  Christ,'  ^ 
to  be  '  changed  into  His  image  from  glory  to 
glory ; ' "  ^  and  Peter  tells  us  expressly  that 
"  Christ  suffered  for  us,  leaving  us  an  example, 
that  we   should    follow  His    steps."*      Christ, 

1  Romans  viii.  29.  ^  Epliesians  iv.  13. 

«  2  Corinthians  iii.  18.  *  1  Peter  ii.  21. 


JESUS  THE   CHRIST.  73 

then,  is  our  example.  He  shows  us  what  we 
ought  to  do  and  be.  We  ought  to  be  like  Him  ; 
we  ought  to  live  as  He  lived.  Not  only  in  His 
teachings,  but  in  His  own  life  and  character, 
He  sets  before  us  our  duty.  What  we  are  to  be 
and  do  is  made  known  not  only  by  Him,  but  in 
Him.  We  are  to  take  Him  as  our  example,  and 
follow  Him,  imitate  Him,  make  His  life  the 
ideal  and  the  inspiration  of  our  lives. 

But  we  are  not  to  regard  Him  as  our  example 
in  any  stiff,  formal,  perfunctory  way.  He  is  not 
to  be  thought  of  as  "  busying  himself,"  while  on 
earth,  "  in  setting  an  example."  We  are  not  to 
think  of  Him  as  some  superior  being,  living 
among  men  merely  to  show  them  how  they  ought 
to  live.  He  was  not  "  acting  a  part "  in  the 
great  drama  of  life.  Far  from  it.  He  lived  out 
spontaneously  the  hfe  that  was  in  Him.  What 
He  appeared  to  be,  He  was.  His  deeds  were  but 
the  outflow  of  His  spirit.  In  Him  the  ideal  and 
the  real  were  one.  He  realized  in  Himself  the 
ideal  life  of  man,  not  in  a  formal,  unnatural 
way,  but  in  a  perfectly  natural,  real  way.  He 
was  not  another  order  of  being,  acting  in 
human  dress  for  man's  enlightenment,  but  He 
was   a  man,  living  a  manly  life  among  men, 


74  JESUS  THE  CHRIST. 

and  so  showing  them  the  life  they  ought  to 
live. 

It  follows  that  we  are  to  be  no  formal  imita- 
tors of  Christ ;  that  we  are  not  to  follow  Him  in 
the  letter.  We  are  under  no  obligations  to  do 
the  same  things  that  He  did.  He  washed  His 
disciples'  feet;  we  are  not  therefore  to  wash 
each  other's  feet.  That  is  "the  letter  that 
killeth."  We  are  to  follow  Him  in  the  spirit. 
His  life  was  not  a  machine  life,  but  a  spiritual 
life,  a  life  of  intelligence  and  freedom.  It  is  not 
our  duty,  therefore,  to  do  just  what  He  did,  but 
to  do  whatever  we  do  in  His  spirit,  under  the 
inspiration  of  His  light  and  life,  and  so  grow 
characters  that  shall  be  like  His. 

The  ground  of  this  duty  is  evident.  Christ 
being  like  us  in  nature,  we  can  be  like  Him  in 
character.  His  character  being  the  result  of 
developing  harmoniously  and  perfectly  a  nature 
that  is  like  ours,  we  can  so  develop  our  natures 
that  our  character  will  be  like  His.  The  pos- 
sibility of  our  developing  a  Christlike  charac- 
ter, and  so  of  Christ  being  our  example,  lies  in 
the  fact  that  His  nature  and  ours  are  essentially 
the  same.  Were  they  not,  were  they  radically 
different,  we  could  not  develop  characters  like 


JESUS  THE  CHRIST.  75 

His,  and  He  could  not  be  our  example.  Were 
He  of  another  and  higher  order  of  beings,  He 
could  not  be  our  example ;  for  we  could  not  live 
His  life.  To  be  our  example,  He  must  belong  to 
our  order ;  He  must  be  a  member  of  the  human 
family.  He  is  our  example,  then,  because  His 
nature  is  like  ours.  He  is  like  us  in  nature ; 
therefore  we  can  become  like  Him  in  character. 
He  has  realized  the  Divine  idea  of  man ;  there- 
fore we  can  realize  that  idea;  we  can  become 
real,  true  men,  even  as  He  was  "the  man  Christ 
Jesus." 

Consequently  Christ  is  a  revelation  of  man, 
not  only  to  man  but  of  man.  He  reveals  man  to 
himself  ;  He  shows  him  the  possibilities  of  his 
own  nature  ;  He  shows  man  what  he  can  be. 
He  can  be  Divine,  he  can  be  Godlike  even  as 
Christ  was ;  he  can  realize  the  Divine  ideal  in 
his  own  life.  Every  soul  can  be  what  God  de- 
signed him  to  be.  He  can  be  a  true  child  of 
God,  a  child  of  God  in  the  likeness  of  moral 
character,  a  perfect  man  in  Christ  Jesus.  All 
this  Christ  reveals  of  man  in  the  fact  that  He  is 
our  example. 

But  Christ  is  not  only  man's  example.  He  is 
man's  destiny.     In  Himself,  in  His  own  life  and 


76  JESUS  THE  CHRIST. 

character,  He  reveals  what  man  is  to  be.  He 
realized  God's  idea  of  man,  therefore  He  shows 
in  Himself  what  man's  destiny  is.  "  When  He 
shall  appear,  we  shall  be  like  Him."  ^  "  For 
whom  He  did  foreknow,  He  also  did  predestinate 
to  be  conformed  to  the  image  of  His  Son,  that 
He  might  be  the  first-born  among  many  breth- 
ren." 2  To  be  like  Christ,  to  be  "  conformed  to 
His  image,"  is  the  destiny  of  man.  Man  reaches 
his  destiny,  achieves  the  goal  of  his  being  when 
he  lives  the  life  of  Christ,  and  just  in  proportion 
as  he  lives  that  life.  Just  to  the  degree  a  man 
lives  the  Christian  life,  just  to  that  degree  does 
he  realize  his  own  destiny  ;  and  when  he  attains 
unto  the  fulness  of  that  life,  he  will  attain  unto 
the  fulness  of  that  destiny  which  God  designed 
for  him. 

In  Christ,  therefore,  heaven  is  revealed.  He 
shows  us  what  constitutes  heaven.  He  elimi- 
nates from  the  world's  thought  all  materialistic 
notions  of  heaven  by  giving  it  —  heaven  in  the 
concrete  —  in  an  actual  life.  Heaven  is  not  a 
place,  but  a  Divine  life,  a  Christlike  character. 
.We  go  to  heaven,  not  by  dying,  but  by  living,  — 
by  living  the  "  Life  Eternal."  As  we  have  His  life, 

1  1  John  iii.  2.  2  Romans  viii.  29. 


JESUS  THE  CHRIST.  77 

we  have  heaven ;  and  we  shall  never  have 
heaven  in  all  of  its  fulness  until  we  have  the 
fulness  and  completeness  of  His  life. 

We  see,  therefore,  something  of  the  greatness 
and  grandeur  of  the  revelation  which  Christ 
makes.  He  reveals  God,  duty,  destiny.  In  Him- 
self He  shows  us  "  our  Father ; "  what  we  ought 
to  be,  and  what  we  are  to  be.  He  is  at  once  the 
image  of  God,  the  example  of  man,  and  the 
type  of  man's  destiny.  What  God  is  in  His 
inward  life,  and  what  man  is  in  his  native  pos- 
sibilities and  ideal  perfection,  shine  in  radiant 
glory  from  the  face  of  Jesus  the  Christ. 

XI Y.  —  Christ  the  Prophet,  Priest,  and  King. 

The  doctrine  of  the  office  of  Christ  lies  be- 
tween that  of  His  person  and  His  work.  It 
marks  the  transition  from  the  doctrine  of  Christ 
to  the  doctrine  of  salvation.  Having  considered 
the  person  of  Christ,  the  next  step  is  to  consider 
His  office,  which  naturally  leads  forward  to  His 
work.  After  the  doctrine  of  His  person  comes 
naturally  the  doctrine  of  His  office.  His  official 
character  bears  a  close  relation  to  His  personal 
character;  hence  our  work  would  hardly  seem 
complete  without  some  notice  of  His  office.     A 


78  JESUS   THE  CHRIST 

brief  word  concerning  His  office,  therefore,  will 
close  our  labor. 

Under  the  head  of  the  title  of  this  book  we 
showed  that  the  term  "  Christ "  signified,  in  the 
beginning  at  least,  the  office  rather  than  the  per- 
son of  the  Master.  But  we  showed  also  that 
this  distinction  between  the  office  and  the  per- 
son is  really  one  of  convenience  rather  than  of 
anything  else ;  that  it  exists  in  thought  rather 
than  in  fact.  This  is  a  point  that  needs  to 
be  emphasized.  We  need  to  see  clearly  that 
Christ's  office  is  not  one  thing  and  His  person 
another;  that  in  His  official  character  He  is  not 
something  radically  different  from  what  He  is 
in  His  personal  character.  His  person  really 
is  His  office.  What  He  is  constitutes  what  He 
does.  His  private  life  is  His  public  life.  His 
official  character  flows  out  naturally  and  spon- 
taneously from  His  personal  character.  When 
He  became  the  Christ  of  God,  when  He  realized 
the  Divine  idea,  when  He  had  developed  His  own 
individual  consciousness  of  God,  and  felt  Himself 
to  be  at  one  with  the  Father,  He  became  the 
Saviour  of  the  world,^  the  prophet,  priest,  and 

1  The  work  of  Christ  in  the  salvation  of  the  world  will  be 
considered  in  another  volume  of  this  series.  —  Editor. 


JESUS  THE  CHRIST.  79 

king  of  men.  He  is  the  "  power  of  God  unto 
salvation,"  because  in  and  of  Himself  He  is  the 
love,  the  wisdom,  and  the  power  of  God.  The 
saving  life  that  He  diffuses  is  only  the  saving 
life  that  He  is.  The  truth  that  He  teaches  is 
nothing  more  than  the  truth  that  He  is.  His 
redeeming  grace  is  only  the  wondrous  love  that 
His  own  soul  has  realized  and  made  His  own. 
We  are  not,  then,  to  think  of  the  office  of  Christ 
as  something  distinct  from  Himself.  We  are 
not  to  separate  the  office  and  the  person  in  any 
such  way  as  to  make  the  office  a  mere  function 
or  performance  of  the  person.  He  saves  the 
world  by  what  He  is,  not  by  what  He  does ; 
hence  we  are  to  think  of  Him  as  our  personal, 
not  merely  as  our  official,  Saviour.  In  fine,  we 
are  to  think  of  His  office,  not  as  something  added 
to  Him  or  conferred  upon  Him,  but  as  something 
inhering  in  Him,  in  His  very  life  and  charac- 
ter, as  the  embodiment  and  outflow  of  His  own 
personal  Divine  consciousness.  Because  of  His 
own  consciousness  of  God,  God  was  in  Him 
"  reconciling  the  world  unto  Himself." 

It  is  therefore  only  for  convenience  or  for  the 
purposes  of  thought,  of  better  apprehension  and 
clearer  view,  that  we  treat  of  the  official  charac- 


80  JESUS   THE   CHRIST. 

ter  of  Christ  as  something  separate  from  His 
personal  character.  We  speak  of  His  office  to 
make  clear  His  work.  In  fact,  the  office  of 
Christ  is  the  relation  He  bears  to  human  needs. 
When  we  speak  of  the  office  of  Christ  we  speak 
of  the  relation  He  bears  to  the  conscious  needs 
of  mankind ;  it  is  merely  Christ  viewed  from 
the  standpoint  of  what  man  needs  and  of  what 
Christ  does  for  him.  His  official  character  is 
His  personal  character  in  its  adaptedness  to  the 
different  states  of  human  consciousness.  We 
are  conscious  of  certain  moral  and  spiritual 
needs.  Christ  in  His  own  life  meets  and  satis- 
fies those  needs.  Hence  in  His  work  of  meeting 
and  satisfj'ing  those  needs,  we  see  Him  in  His 
official  character;  we  see  His  office  in  His  work 
in  and  for  man. 

The  whole  work  of  Christ  may  be  expressed 
in  one  word, "  at-one-ment."  His  work  is  to  bring 
man  into  at-one-ment  with  God,  to  reconcile  the 
children  unto  the  Father,  and  grow  them  into 
a  permanent  oneness  with  Him.  Christ  was  in 
perfect  agreement,  harmony,  oneness  with  God  ; 
and  to  brinor  man  into  the  same  oneness  consti- 
tutes  His  work.  We  treat  this  work  under  dif- 
ferent forms,  call  it  by  different  names,  but  it  is 


JESUS  THE  CHRIST.  81 

all  included  in  this  oneness  with  God.  To  brino- 
man  into  this  oneness,  to  make  him  one  with 
God  in  spirit,  purpose,  and  life,  is  the  whole 
work  of  Christ.  His  office,  therefore,  is  His 
way  or  method  of  doing  this  work.  His  official 
character  is  seen  in  His  method  of  at-one-ins: 
man  with  God,  of  drawing  the  world  into  this 
spiritual  oneness  with  the  Father. 

Xow  this  character  is  usually  divided  into  that 
of  prophet,  priest,  and  king.  In  His  office,  in 
His  work  of  bringing  the  world  to  God,  Christ  is 
regarded  as  holding  and  exercising  this  threefold 
office.  But  we  must  guard  against  absolutely 
dividing  His  office,  of  separating  these  offices 
one  from  another,  in  such  a  way  that  Christ  is 
at  one  time  prophet,  at  another  priest,  and  at 
another  king.  There  is  really  no  such  division 
of  Christ.  Officially  He  is  a  unit,  as  He  is  per- 
sonally. His  office  is  one,  as  His  person  is  one. 
He  is  not  at  one  time  prophet,  at  another  priest, 
and  at  another  king,  —  prophet  and  priest  on 
earth,  and  king  in  heaven,  —  but  He  is  prophet, 
priest,  and  king  at  once  and  at  all  times.  All 
these  offices  are  united  in  Him  and  go  constantly 
to  make  His  official  character.  Indeed,  they  are 
but  different  aspects  of  the  same  thing.     They 


82  JESUS  THE  CHRIST. 

are  His  office  and  work  viewed  from  different 
standpoints.  Viewed  from  one  class  of  human 
needs,  Christ  is  a  prophet;  from  another  He 
is  a  priest;  from  another  He  is  a  king.  Or, 
seen  in  the  light  of  experience,  of  what  we  are 
conscious  Christ  does  for  us.  He  is  to  us  at 
one  time  prophet,  at  another  priest,  at  another 
king. 

When  He  comes  to  us  as  a  teacher  of  truth, 
as  a  preacher  of  righteousness,  He  is  a  prophet. 
We  are  conscious  of  our  ignorance,  of  our  need 
of  knowledge,  of  moral  and  spiritual  enlight- 
enment. We  feel  very  keenly  the  darkness  of 
our  souls,  the  dense  clouds  that  often  cover  our 
pathway,  and  we  cry  for  light.  We  would  know 
the  right,  we  would  have  the  way  pointed  out ;  we 
would  know  God,  duty,  and  destiny.  Hence  Christ 
comes  to  us  as  the  Light.  In  this  experience. 
He  is  to  us  the  prophet  of  God.  He  speaks  to 
us  the  eternal  Word  and  opens  to  us  the  ever- 
lasting kingdom.  He  shows  us  the  way  of  life 
and  salvation.  He  teaches  us  concerning  those 
things  that  make  for  our  peace.  He  bears  to  us 
a  message  from  God,  and  illuminates  our  path- 
way with  rays  from  the  "-  Sun  of  righteousness." 
His  prophetic  office  is  His  teaching  office.     In 


JESUS  THE   CHRIST.  83 

His   relation   to  us  in   our   need   of  light   and 
knowledge,  He  is  a  prophet. 

But  man  is  conscious  not  only  of  the  need  of 
moral  light,  but  also  of  saving  power.  He 
knows  himself  to  be  a  sinner.  He  is  conscious 
not  only  that  he  is  ignorant  of  God,  but  that  he 
is  alienated  from  Him ;  that  he  is  out  of  harmony 
with  the  spirit  of  the  universe ;  that  the  real  na- 
ture of  things  is  against  him ;  that  in  some  way 
he  is  down  in  the  valley  and  unable  alone  to 
climb  *'  the  evergreen  mountains  of  life."  This 
experience  of  sin  is  the  widest,  deepest,  and 
darkest,  as  well  as  the  most  painful,  experience 
of  mankind.  Man  needs,  therefore,  a  power  that 
can  help  him  in  this  experience,  that  can  lift 
him  out  of  his  sin,  that  can  reconcile  him  to 
God,  that  can  speak  for  him  and  go  with  him  to 
the  throne  of  grace,  that  can  open  to  him  the  foun- 
tain of  mercy,  that  can  lead  and  bear  him  back 
to  the  Father's  house  and  impart  to  him  tlie  con- 
sciousness of  restored  harmony,  renewed  favor, 
and  everlasting  possibility.  Christ,  therefore,  in 
His  relation  to  man's  consciousness  of  sin,  is  a 
priest.  His  priestly  office  is  His  power  to  recon- 
cile man  to  God,  to  bear  in  upon  the  sinner's 
soul  a  consciousness  of  the   Father's  undying 


84  JESUS   THE   CHRIST. 

love,  and  so  bear  the.  sinner  back  to  the  Father's 
house  and  restore  within  him  the  assurance  of 
Divine  favor  and  the  courage  for  future  achieve- 
ment. In  His  capacitv  of  atoning  for  human  sin 
by  restoring,  through  faith  and  repentance,  that 
oneness  with  God  that  the  sinner  has  lost,  He 
is  a  priest.  His  priestly  office  is  that  of  "  peace- 
maker," of  making  peace  with  God,  of  reconcil- 
ing the  sinful  children  to  the  Father  by  lifting 
them  out  of,  or  turning  them  away  from,  their 
sin. 

But  man  needs  also  a  king,  —  some  power  to 
rule  and  reign  over  him  or  in  him.  He  needs 
this  in  his  individual  capacity.  He  needs  some 
one  to  speak  to  him  with  authority  and  command 
his  obedience.  We  are  all  conscious  of  this  need. 
We  all  feel  the  need  of  some  power  to  reign  over 
us  or  within  us.  We  are  conscious  that  we  are 
not  sufficient  for  our  own  government  and  con- 
trol ;  that  we  need  a  power  enthroned  somewhere, 
in  our  own  souls  or  out,  to  which  we  must  bow, 
and  whose  voice  shall  be  to  us  the  voice  of  God. 
Individually,  we  all  feel  the  need  of  a  Messiah, 
one  anointed  of  God  to  rule  our  spirits. 

But  if  we  are  conscious  of  this  need  in  our 
individual  capacity,  much  more  arc  we  in  our 


JESUS   THE   CHRIST.  85 

associate  capacity.  Government  has  ever  been 
one  of  the  prime  necessities  of  mankind.  Men 
must  be  governed,  or  thev  cannot  live  together. 
If  communities  of  human  beings  are  to  exist, 
they  must  be  governed;  there  must  be  some  rule 
over  them.  This  is  just  as  true  religiously  as 
politically.  If  men  are  to  associate  together  re- 
ligiously, they  must  be  governed;  there  must  be 
an  authority  to  which  all  bow,  a  reigning  power 
which  all  acknowledge,  a  power  which  answers 
for  king.  But  man  is  a  social  being ;  whatever 
he  does  he  does  in  company ;  to  whatever  end 
he  lives,  he  lives  in  society.  Touch  his  social 
instinct  therefore  with  religion,  and  he  must 
have  his  church,  his  religious  community.  He 
cannot  live  his  religion  alone  ;  he  must  live  it  in 
the  society  of  hi^  fellow-men,  in  communion 
with  kindred  souls  ;  he  must  associate  with  others 
in  doing  his  religious  work ;  and  this  association, 
this  church,  must  have  a  head,  a  reigning  power, 
a  ruling  spirit. 

Not  only  would  there  never  have  been  any 
Christianity  without  Christ,  there  never  would 
have  been  any  Christian  Church.  Christ  is  as  in- 
dispensable to  the  existence  of  the  Church  as  He 
is  to  the  existence  of  the  gospel.     The  Church 


86  JESUS  THE  CHRIST. 

grew  out  of  Him  and  around  Him.  It  is  the  de- 
velopment of  His  leadership,  the  outgrowth  of 
His  following.  Because  men  were  moved  to 
follow  Him  as  Lord  and  Master,  therefore  the 
Church.  His  spiritual  majesty.  His  royal  leader- 
ship in  the  realm  of  religion,  created  the  Church. 

We  must  never  forget  that  all  we  call  Chris- 
tianity existed  first  potentially  in  Christ.  The 
Christian  Scriptures  and  the  Christian  Church 
were  both,  first  of  all,  in  the  life  of  Jesus.  The 
Scriptures  are  not  the  foundation  of  the  Church 
or  of  Christianity,  but  only  the  record  of 
its  beginning. 

Destroy  the  record,  therefore,  and  you  do  not 
destroy  the  Christ.  As  Dr.  Newman  Smyth 
saj's:  "Even  if  you  should  break  the  Bible  to 
pieces,  the  evidence  of  the  ultimate  spiritual  per- 
sonality of  Jesus  the  Christ  would  not  be  de- 
stroyed. Break  the  glass  to  pieces,  and  you  will 
not  rid  yourself  of  the  evidence  of  the  sun  which 
shone  in  it ;  still  every  fragment  and  bit  of  glass 
at  your  feet  will  throw  its  beam  of  light  up  into 
your  eye."  ^  The  Church  is  a  living  witness  to 
the  reality  of  Christ  which  no  broken  Bible  could 
destroy.     Christ's  personal  reign  in  the  hearts 

1  Reality  of  Faith,  p.  40. 


JESUS  THE  CHRIST.  87 

of  men,  drawing  them  into  communion  with 
Himself  and  building  them  into  the  temple  of 
the  Lord,  is  an  everlasting  testimony  to  His  past 
history  and  present  glory.  The  Church,  as  a 
creation  of  His  royal  presence,  becomes  a  wit- 
ness of  that  presence ;  for  without  Christ  there 
could  have  been  no  Church,  since  there  would 
have  been  no  power  to  create  and  govern  it. 

Thus  is  Christ  prophet,  priest,  and  king  in  His 
answer  to  the  conscious  needs  of  mankind.     He 
is  prophet  in  His  teaching  office,  priest  in  His 
saving  energy,  and  king  in  His  reigning  power. 
He  meets  man's  conscious  need  of  light,  of  help, 
and  of  authority,  and  all  this  in  His  own  person- 
ality.    In  what  He  is,  as  "  the  Son  of  man  and 
the  Son  of  God,"  He  is  prophet,  priest,  and  king. 
These  terms  only  set  before  us  the  one  work 
which  He  does,  —  the  leading  and  drawing  and 
educating  man  into  His  own  oneness  with  God ; 
and  this  work  He  does  by  realizing  in  His  own 
life  the  Divine  truth,  the  Divine  way,  and  the 
Divine  life. 

It  is  to  be  observed,  however,  that  we  are 
dealing  here  with  analogies,  not  with  identities. 
This  has  been  implied  in  all  we  have  said,  but 
it  needs  to  be  made  explicit.     Christ  is  analo- 


88  JESUS  THE  CHRIST. 

gous  to  the  \Yorld's  prophets,  priests,  and  kings, 
but  He  is  not  absohitely  like  any  of  them.  Be- 
tween Him  and  them  there  is  a  resemblance,  but 
no  exact  similarity.  The  world  never  saw  a 
prophet,  priest,  or  king,  who  was  exactly  like 
Christ.  Only  in  some  respects  does  the  likeness 
hold,  and  the  contrast  is  always  much  greater 
than  the  comparison. 

Surely  no  one  will  contend  that  Christ  is  really 
like  any  of  the  kings  of  this  world.  He  is  not 
like  an  earthly  monarch  except  in  the  mere  fact 
that  He  reigns.  In  all  other  respects  He  con- 
trasts with  this  world's  rulers.  They  rule  the 
world  without.  He  rules  the  world  within ;  they 
control  the  hands.  He  controls  the  heart ;  they 
rule  by  force.  He  rules  by  love ;  they  compel 
obedience.  He  wins  obedience ;  they  reign  by  vir- 
tue of  their  office.  He  reigns  by  virtue  of  what 
He  is;  their  power  lies  in  armed  legions.  His 
power  lies  in  His  own  personality,  in  the  grace 
and  magnetism  of  His  own  life  and  character,  in 
His  own  Divine  manhood. 

Equally  clear  is  it  that  no  prophet  of  the  world 
was  ever  just  like  Christ.  Doubtless  Christ  was 
more  like  the  Hebrew  prophet  than  any  other 
character  in  the  world's  history.    He  spoke  from 


JESUS  THE  CHRIST.  89 

God  to  man  and  preached  the  everlasting  right- 
eousness, even  as  the  prophets  of  Israel  and 
Judah.  He  confesses  to  the  possession  and  ex- 
ercise of  the  prophetic  office :  "  The  Spirit  of  the 
Lord  is  upon  Me,  because  He  hath  anointed  Me 
to  preach  the  gospel  to  the  poor;  He  hath  sent 
Me  to  heal  the  broken-hearted,  to  preach  deliv- 
erance to  the  captives,  and  recovering  of  sight  to 
the  blind,  to  set  at  liberty  them  that  are  bruised, 
to  preach  the  acceptable  year  of  the  Lord."  i 

The  Hebrew  prophet,  however,  was  no  exact 
prototype  of  Christ;  he  resembled  Christ  only 
in  the  fact  that  he  uttered  the  voice  of  God  to 
man.  In  the  form,  manner,  and  largely  in  the 
contents  of  his  teaching,  he  differed  widely  from 
the  Son  of  man.  The  prophet  spoke  strongly, 
often  fiercely  ;  Christ,  with  the  calmness  and 
sweetness  of  assured  truth  and  conscious  power 
"  of  one  having  authority."  The  prophet  spoke 
in  the  superlative  degree ;  Christ  seldom,  if  ever, 
left  the  positive.  The  one  spoke  as  he  was 
moved  by  the  Holy  Spirit ;  the  other  out  of  the 
spirit  of  holiness  that  filled  His  own  soul.  The 
one  uttered  the  Word  of  God  as  it  came  to  him ; 
the  other  uttered  the  Word  of  God  that  was  in 

1  Luke  iv.  18, 19. 


90  JESUS  THE  CHRIST. 

Him.  The  one  appealed  to  an  objective  law,  the 
other  to  the  subjective  law  of  His  own  oneness 
with  God.  The  one  said, "  Keep  the  law,  and  thou 
shalt  have  peace  ;"  the  other  said,  "  Come  unto 
Me,  all  ye  that  labor  and  are  heavy  laden,  and  I 
will  give  you  rest."  All  the  teaching  of  Christ 
was  really  about  Christ,  the  unfolding  of  His  one- 
ness with  the  Father,  and  the  way  of  that  oneness 
for  man.  His  life  was  His  sermon.  Out  of  the 
great  realities  He  saw  and  felt  in  Himself,  He 
spoke.  Christ  "  saw  all  things.  He  pierced  to 
the  meaning  of  this  world  ;  He  understood  day 
and  night ;  He  looked  into  the  heart  of  the  age  ; 
He  knew  the  secret  of  history ;  He  entered  into 
the  depths  of  humanity  and  knew  life  and  man ; 
He  saw  all  things  and  Himself  in  God,  and  God 
in  all ;  and  out  of  such  a  union  sprang  the  spon- 
taneous conviction  of  Eternal  Life  as  the  key  to 
all  and  the  end  of  all."  ^  The  prophetic  office  of 
Christ,  therefore,  is  unique.  In  a  large  sense  He 
was  a  prophet  not  after  the  manner  of  men. 

But  as  a  priest  Christ  is  supposed  to  come  into 
close  relation  with  the  priests  of  men.  The  He- 
brew priest  is  thought  to  be  the  special  archetype 
of  Christ.    The  priestly  office  of  Christ  is  thought 

1  Hunger's  Appeal  to  Life,  pp.  303,  304. 


JESUS  THE   CHRIST.  91 

to  be  a  lineal  descendant  of  the  priestly  office 
under  the  law.  He,  as  priest,  sacrificed  Himself, 
thereby  satisfying  the  legal  requirements  of  God, 
largely  in  the  same  way  as  the  sacrifices  offered 
by  the  priests  of  the  old  dispensation.  It  is  a 
curious  fact,  however,  that  Christ  never  calls 
Himself  a  priest,  and  is  never  so  called  by  any 
writer  of  the  New  Testament,  except  the  author 
of  Hebrews.  As  Martineau  says:  "It  deserves 
notice,  that,  unless  as  the  name  of  His  enemies, 
the  word  "  priest "  never  occurs  either  in  the  his- 
torical or  epistolary  writings  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, except  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews."  ^ 
In  Hebrews  Christ  is  professedly  compared  to  the 
Jewish  high-priest,  but  the  comparison  turns  out 
to  be  almost  a  contrast.  Christ  is  nearly  every- 
thing that  the  high-priest  is  not.  The  high-priest 
is  in  the  hereditary  line ;  Christ  is  a  priest  after 
the  order  of  Melchizedeck, "  without  descent,  hav- 
ing neither  beginning  of  days  nor  end  of  life."  ^ 
The  high-priest  offers  other  things ;  Christ  offers 
Himself.  The  one  sacrificed  once  every  year;  the 
other  once  for  all.  The  high-priest  entered  the 
holy  place  yearly  for  a  short  time ;  Christ  entered 

1  Studies  of  Christianitj-,  p.  60. 

2  Hebrews  vii.  3. 


92  JESUS  THE  CHRIST. 

the  heavenly  home  forever.  In  fine,  the  priest- 
hood of  the  one  is  outward,  external,  ceremonial, 
temporal;  that  of  the  other,  inward,  spiritual, 
real,  and  eternal.  The  foundation  for  the  priest- 
ly office  of  Christ,  therefore,  is  slight.  As  com- 
pared with  the  priests  of  the  law.  He  is  one  in 
little  more  than  in  name.  The  analogy  between 
Him  and  the  Jewish  high-priest  is  anything  but 
apparent.  It  was  evidently  seized  upon  by  the 
author  of  Hebrews  in  order  to  commend  the  gos- 
pel to  the  Hebrew  Christians.  It  has  little  foun- 
dation in  fact. 

All  that  can  be  claimed  for  it  is  that  the  bene- 
fit the  Hebrew  people  received  from  their  high- 
priest  was  something  like  the  benefit  the  sinner 
receives  from  Christ.  As  the  high-priest  re- 
stored or  proclaimed  once  a  year  the  legal  or 
ceremonial  at-one-ment  between  God  and  His 
people,  so  Christ  brings  back  the  lost  harmony 
between  God  and  the  sinner.  So  far  as  this  the 
analogy  may  extend  ;  farther  it  does  not.  If  we 
look  to  it  to  teach  us  how  Christ  restores  this 
harmony,  we  shall  look  in  vain  or  be  misled. 
No  study  of  the  Hebrew  priesthood  can  aid  us 
much  in  solving  the  problem  of  the  atonement. 
Christ  is  a  priest  in  such  a  radically  different 


JESUS   THE  CHRIST.  93 

sense  from  any  priest  under  the  law,  that  no 
study  of  the  legal  priesthood  can  lead  us  into  a 
right  apprehension  of  the  free,  spiritual  priest- 
hood of  Christ.  Christ  is  an  inward,  spiritual 
priest;  therefore  He  cannot  help  man  by  any 
external,  legal  sacrifice,  but  only  by  a  sacrifice 
of  the  spirit.  Schleiermacher,  in  our  opinion, 
grasps  the  real  heart  of  the  matter  when  he 
attributes  the  redemptive  force  in  Christ  to  His 
world-wide  and  world-deep  sympathy.  His  doc- 
trine, as  stated  by  Dorner,  is  that  "  Christ's  suf- 
fering proper  consisted  in  this,  that  His  outer 
suffering,  caused  by  sinners,  presented  to  Him 
as  in  a  mirror  the  depth  and  extent  of  sin, 
and  stirred  His  sympathy  in  the  most  powerful 
way.  .  .  .  This  sympathy  constitutes  Christ's 
proper  high-priestly  action,  in  distinction  from 
His  prophetic  and  kingly  office.  It  has  the 
power  of  drawing  us  into  the  communion  of 
Christ's  holiness  and  blessedness  after  He,  by 
His  sympathy,  had  let  Himself  be  drawn  into 
communion  with  us."  Here  is  the  key  to  the 
atoning  work  of  Christ.  The  author  of  Hebrews 
intimates  it  when  he  says  :  "  For  we  have  not 
a  high-priest  who  cannot  be  touched  with  the 
feeling  of  our  infirmities,  but  was  in  all  points 


94  JESUS  THE   CHRIST. 

tempted  like  as  we  are,  yet  without  sin."  ^  The 
suffering  sympathy  of  Christ  is  the  power  that 
saves  the  sinner.  His  physical  sufferings  have 
no  efficacy  except  as  they  manifest  His  love.  In 
and  of  themselves  they  can  affect  neither  God 
nor  man. 

Thus  we  see  in  what  sense  Christ  is  prophet, 
priest,  and  king.  These  terms  are  helpful  ana- 
logues of  His  official  character.  They  do  not 
set  forth  the  exact  truth  in  any  of  these  relations, 
but  they  stand  around  Him  like  so  many  mirrors, 
each  reflecting  something  of  His  glory. 

CONCLUSION. 

This,  then,  is  the  conclusion  of  this  little  study 
of  Jesus  the  Christ :  that  He  is  both  the  "  Son  of 
God  "  and  "  Son  of  man ; "  that  He  is  at  one  with 
both  God  and  man  in  nature,  and  at  one  with 
God  in  character,  and  so  the  absolute  Word,  the 
"  express  image  "  of  God,  the  Divine  Life  real- 
ized among  men,  and  hence  a  perfect  revelation 
of  God's  thought  concerning  man.  What  God 
is,  and  what  He  would  have  man  do  and  be,  and 
what  He  has  purposed  man  shall  do   and   be, 

1  Hebrews  iv.  15. 


JESUS  THE  CHRIST.  95 

are  all  made  known  in  Christ.  He  is  the  abso- 
lute Divinity,  not  in  personality  or  infinity,  but 
in  moral  likeness,  and  so  the  absolute  duty 
and  the  absolute  destiny,  and,  by  virtue  of  this 
fact,  the  royal  light  and  redeeming  love,  of  the 
world. 

Consequently  His  is  the  absolute  religion. 
There  is  no  going  beyond  Him,  and  there  is  no 
"  climbing  up  some  other  way."  All  other  relig- 
ions are  tentative;  His  is  the  absolute  truth, 
way,  life.  We  come  to  our  destiny  only  through 
a  moral  likeness  to  Him.  Not  by  ''  the  light  of 
Nature"  or  of  "conscience"  do  we  reach  the 
goal,  but  by  the  light  that  shines  evermore  in 
the  face  of  Jesus  Christ.  In  some  world  His 
light  and  His  love  must  enlighten  our  minds 
and  purify  our  hearts  before  we  can  realize  that 
Divine  manhood  which  God  has  determined 
shall  be  ours.  We  must  "  conform  to  His 
image"  before  we  can  realize  our  destiny. 

It  becomes  us  then  to  begin  that  conformation 
now.  As  intelligent  beings,  living  in  the  midst 
of  this  Christian  day,  it  becomes  us  to  take 
Christ  as  our  Way,  our  Truth,  and  our  Life. 
Some  day  we  must  do  this,  and  now  is  the  best 
time.     "  Now  is  the  accepted  time,"  and  always 


96  JESUS  THE  CHRIST. 

will  be  7102U  until  we  do  the  will  of  God  in 
"  conforming  to  the  image  of  His  Son."  As 
individuals  this  is  our  dut}^  As  individuals  it 
is  supreme  wisdom  and  supreme  goodness  to 
take  Christ  as  our  present,  personal  Saviour. 

As  a  Church  this  is  equally  true.  We  can 
really  live  only  by  building  our  Church  on  Christ. 
"  The  Church  of  the  future,"  no  less  than  that  of 
the  past,  must  be  built  on  the  Rock.  If  it  is  to 
be  a  power  in  bringing  men  into  oneness  with 
God,  it  must  bring  them  into  oneness  with  Christ, 
root  them  into  the  great  reality  of  His  conscious- 
ness, and  bind  them  to  His  personality.  If  this 
brief  and  imperfect  development  of  the  doctrine 
of  Christ  shall  lead  any  one  to  see  and  feel  Him 
to  be  his  own  personal  Saviour,  and  if  it  shall 
help  make  the  Church  in  any  degree  more  truly 
Christian,  the  author  will  rejoice  in  the  fruit  of 
his  labor. 


University  Press  :  John  Wilson  &  Son,  Cambridge 


1    1012  01144  7051 


DATE  DUE 

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